Games
Chaturanga
chuh-too-RAHNG-guh
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Chaturanga is the earliest board strategy game clearly documented in India, played on an eight by eight board sometimes called ashtapada, with pieces representing the four traditional divisions of an Indian army: infantry, cavalry, elephantry and chariotry, the ancestors of the modern pawn, knight, bishop and rook. Some early forms were played by four players at once and used dice to determine moves; the two player, diceless form most directly ancestral to later games emerged over time. Chaturanga is the common root of an entire family of later games: transmitted westward into Persia it became shatranj, which passed into the medieval Islamic world and then Europe to become chess, while separate and less documented transmission eastward and southward contributed to the development of games including Chinese xiangqi and, at a further remove, Japanese shogi.
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearChaturanga is clearly attested in Indian sources by around the sixth century AD, the date taken here, though the game may well be older; no securely dated earlier textual or archaeological evidence survives, and the rules of its earliest forms are only partially reconstructed from later references. Open Questions
Governing BodyNo governing body identified
No governing body found; Chaturanga is an ancient ancestor game with no modern organized play identified in research (Wikipedia Chaturanga article read directly). Its descendant, chess, is governed by FIDE, but that is a separate entity in this atlas and not Chaturanga itself. Originating Region Game TypeBoard game, ancestral strategy, chaturanga family 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Ancestor Of
Chess, Games Chess descends from chaturanga by way of Persian shatranj; the mainstream academic view, though exact dates and some transmission details across the Persian and early European period remain debated.
Shogi, Games Why this is disputed. Shogi shares chaturanga as its ultimate common ancestor with chess, but the eastward route and timing by which chaturanga related games reached Japan is far less documented than chaturanga westward transmission through Persia into chess, and is debated among game historians.
Xiangqi, Games Why this is disputed. H.J.R. Murray argued Xiangqi descends from Chaturanga by trans Asian diffusion; David H. Li argued for an origin in indigenous Chinese game traditions unconnected to India. See the recorded dissent on this edge.
Sources
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Ancestor Of: Xiangqi
Li argues in The Genealogy of Chess (1998) that Xiangqi developed out of indigenous Chinese game traditions, including the older game liubo, with no line of descent from Chaturanga. On this reading the resemblance between the two games reflects a shared, independently arising interest in war simulation games rather than transmission along trade and diplomatic routes from India, the diffusionist position associated with H.J.R. Murray that this edge otherwise states.
A dissenting reading, from David H. LiThe Genealogy of Chess, Premier Publishing Company, Bethesda, MD, 1998
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