Mahabharata Chaturanga

by Arihant
(India)

Mama Shakuni was slain in battle

Mama Shakuni was the prominent character in the Indian mythological tale: Mahabharata. Although most of the times, they were on cards and playing over the ante, but when he was not playing that, he used to play Chaturanga with his army in charge. He used to devise strategies by playing that board game about how to proceed in the times of battles. He was touted as the cleverest strategist of his times. He also tried converting this game into gambling but that did not really caught up.

When he was killed in the war, his wooden game-board was burnt along with his body. There is also a story about another group Pandavs losing to him in the game of Chaturanga. They had to surrender their wife Draupadi to Shakuni’s group. After much of the debate over this matter taking the Indian Culture in consideration and everything, it was devised that it might not be the most worthwhile thing to do. The Kauravs(The group that consisted of 100 Kauravs and their Uncle: Shakuni) did not agree with the court and started pulling the Sari of Draupadi but was saved by Lord Krishna from Pandav’s (opposing group of Kauravs).

This was just another story about the Chaturanga. The references like these can be found in just about all the popular epics of the Indian mythology. Ramayan, the most popular epic-tale also had the reference when Maharaj Dashrath played Chaturanga and was really fond of it. Similarly, the Kamasutra also has references about the kings and queens playing this very game. This game has a very royal touch associated with it and that is the sole reason it evolved into many forms and is still available to be played. Chess is just another form of Chaturanga’s evolution.