Snakes and Ladders an ancient Indian board game
Snakes and Ladders is an ancient Indian board game regarded today as
a worldwide classic.
It is played between two or more players on a gameboard having
numbered, gridded squares.
A number of "ladders" and "snakes" are pictured on the board, each
connecting two specific board squares. The object of the game is to
navigate one's game piece, according to the dice rolls, from the start
(bottom square)to the finish (top square), helped or hindered by ladders
and snakes.
The historic version had root in morality lessons, where a player's
progression up the board represented a life journey complicated by
virtues (ladders) and vices (snakes).The game is a simple race contest
based on sheer luck and is popular with young children. Snakes and
ladders.
Board geometry
The size of the grid (most commonly 8×8, 10×10, or 12×12) varies from
board to board, as does the exact arrangement of the snakes and ladders,
with both factors affecting the duration of play. Random die rolls
determine game piece movement in the traditional form of play.
History
Snakes and Ladders originated in India as part of a family of dice
board games, that included Gyan chauper pachisi (present-day Ludo). The
game made its way to England and was sold as "Snakes and Ladders", then
the basic concept was introduced in the United States as Chutes and
Ladders (an "improved new version of England's famous indoor sport by
game pioneer Milton Bradley.
Known as Moksha Patam, the game was popular in ancient India and
emphasised the role of fate or karma
A Jain version, Gyanbazi or Gyan chauper dates to the 16th century.
consciousness surrounding everyday life.
The underlying ideals of the game inspired a version introduced in
Victorian England in 1892.
Moksha Patam was associated with traditional Hindu and Jain
philosophy contrasting karma and kama, or destiny and desire. It
emphasized destiny, as opposed to games such as pachisi, which focused
on life as a mixture of skill and luck.
The game has also been interpreted and used as a tool for teaching
the effects of good deeds versus bad.
The ladders represented virtues such as generosity, faith, and
humility, while the snakes represented vices such as lust, anger, murder
and theft. The morality lesson of the game was that a person can attain
salvation through doing good, whereas by doing evil one will inherit
rebirth to lower forms of life.
The number of ladders was less than the number of snakes as a
reminder that a path of good is much more difficult to tread than a path
of sins.
Presumably the number "100" represented Moksha (salvation).
In Andhra Pradesh this game is popularly called Vaikunthapali or
Paramapada Sopana Patam (the ladder to salvation) in Telugu. In Hindi,
this game is called Saanp aur Seedhi, Saanp Seedhi and Mokshapat.
In the original game the squares of virtue are: Faith, Reliability,
Generosity, Knowledge, and Asceticism. The squares of vice or evil are:
Disobedience, Vanity, Vulgarity, Theft, Lying , Drunkenness, Debt,
Murder, Rage, Greed), Pride, and lust.
Milton Bradley Chutes and Ladders gameboard c. 1952. The
illustrations show good deeds and their rewards; bad deeds and their
consequences.Each player starts with a token on the starting square
(usually the "1" grid square in the bottom left corner, or simply, the
imaginary space beside the "1" grid square) and takes turns to roll a
single die to move the token by the number of squares indicated by the
die roll. Tokens follow a fixed route marked on the gameboard which
usually follows a boustrophedon (ox-plow) track from the bottom to the
top of the playing area, passing once through every square.
If, on completion of a move, a player's token lands on the
lower-numbered end of a "ladder", the player moves the token up to the
ladder's higher-numbered square. If the player lands on the
higher-numbered square of a "snake" (or chute), the token must be moved
down to the snake's lower-numbered square.
If a player rolls a `6', the player may, after moving, immediately
take another turn; otherwise play passes to the next player in turn. If
a player rolls three consecutive `6's, the player must return to the
starting square (grid "1") and may not move again until rolling another
`6'.
The player who is first to bring their token to the last square of
the track is the winner. A variation exists where a player must roll the
exact number to reach the final square (hence winning). Depending on the
particular variation, if the roll of the die is too large the token
remains in place.
Specific editions
The most widely known edition of Snakes and Ladders in the United
States is Chutes and Ladders from Milton Bradley (which was purchased by
the game's current distributor Hasbro
It is played on a 10×10 board, and players advance their pieces
according to a spinner rather than a dice.
The theme of the board design is playground equipment-children climb
ladders to go down chutes. The artwork on the board teaches morality.
The squares on the bottom of the ladders show a child doing a good or
sensible deed and at the top of the ladder there is an image of the
child enjoying the reward.
At the top of the chutes, there are pictures of children engaging in
mischievous or foolish behaviour and the images on the bottom show the
child suffering the consequences.
There have also been many pop culture versions of the game produced
in recent years, with graphics featuring such characters as Dora the
Explorer In Canada the game has been traditionally sold as "Snakes and
Ladders", and produced by the Canada Games Company Several Canadian
specific versions have been produced over the years, including version
substituting Toboggan runs for the snakes.
With the demise of the Canada Games Company, Chutes and Ladders
produced by Milton Bradley/Hasbro has been gaining in popularity. In the
United Kingdom is Spear's Games' edition of Snakes and Ladders, played
on a 10×10 board where a single die is used. During the early 1990s in
South Africa, Chutes and Ladders games made from cardboard were
distributed on the back of egg boxes as part of a promotion.
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