Pachisi
Pachisi (Hindi: पचीसी) is a cross and circle board game that originated in ancient India which has been described as the "national game of India".
Description
Pachisi is a race game, played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross.
A player's pieces move around the board based upon a throw of six or seven cowrie shells, with the number of shells resting with aperture upwards indicating the number of spaces to move.
The name of the game derives from the Hindi word pachis, meaning twenty-five, the largest score that can be thrown with the cowrie shells. Thus the game is also known by the name Twenty-Five.
There are other versions of this game where the largest score that can be thrown is thirty.
There are other well known versions of the game, chaupar, chausar, chaupur or caupur.
The word caupur derives from the Sanskrit catus pada meaning he who has four legs.
Parcheesi, Sorry! and Ludo are among the many Westernized commercial versions of the game.
It is also possible that this game had led to the development of the Korean board game Yunnori, through the ancient kingdom Baekje.
Traditional equipment
Each player has four beehive-shaped game pieces (this can be increased to up to 16 pieces each side in some versions).
The pieces of one player are distinguishable from another by their color: black, green, red and yellow are used for each player.
Six cowrie shells are used to determine the amount to move the players' pieces.
The shells are thrown from the player's hand and the number of cowries which fall with their openings upwards indicate how many spaces the player may move, and whether the player make take another turn.
| Cowries | Value | Another turn? |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 25 | Yes |
| 1 | 10 | Yes |
| 2 | 2 | No |
| 3 | 3 | No |
| 4 | 4 | No |
| 5 | 5 | No |
| 6 | 6 | Yes |
In some versions, seven cowrie shells are used to determine the amount to move the players' pieces. The shells are thrown from the player's hand and the number of cowries which fall with their openings upwards indicate how many spaces the player may move:
| Cowries | Value | Name | Another turn? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 7 | Sat | Yes |
| 1 | 10 | Dus | Yes |
| 2 | 2 | Dooga | No |
| 3 | 3 | Teeni | No |
| 4 | 4 | Chari | No |
| 5 | 25 | Pachees | Yes |
| 6 | 35 | Paintees | Yes |
| 7 | 14 | Chaudah | Yes |
See also
- Ashte kashte — a game with similar rules
- Board game
- Chaupur
- Cross and circle game
- Patolli
- Parqués
- Race game
- Yunnori
