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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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