ARTICLE
Moksha Patam
In the 1890s, Moksha Patam made its way to Britain, where it eventually acquired the name Snakes and Ladders. While the British version retained some emphasis on ideas of morality – with illustrations of good and bad deeds on the squares that bookended each ladder or snake – it did away with the spiritual connotations and nuances of the Indian version. Later, in 1943, the game was introduced in the USA by Milton Bradley under the name Chutes and Ladders, as the company felt that the image of snakes would scare children away. Other versions of the game include Leiterspiel, a German version that used pictures of circus animals.
Although the modern version of the board has been standardised as a hundred squares arranged in a rectangle, the mediaeval Moksha Patam varied widely in design, containing anywhere between 72 to 124 squares, arranged in a cross or in a custom shape that followed a theme. For instance, in a Mewari board that is housed in the National Museum, the playing area is shaped like a Rajput fort. Some versions of Moksha Patam made for Hindus featured Vaishnavite imagery and labelled the last square as Vaikuntha, or the abode of Vishnu. Gyan Chaupar, as the Jains called Moksha Patam, was especially popular during the period of Paryushan, when devotees fasted and played the game as a form of spiritual engagement. Some Gyan Chaupar designs depicted the playing area surrounded by an image of the Cosmic Being or Lok Purusha. To a lesser extent, versions of Moksha Patam were also made using Islamic or Sufi references, with the last square denoting the moment of merging with God.
Moksha Patam boards from mediaeval India are housed in the collections of the National Museum, New Delhi; the Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute, Jodhpur; the Calico Museum of Textiles, Ahmedabad; and the British Library, London, UK.
Bibliography
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