An Indian game that transfixed Victorian England

What does Snakes and Ladders — a near-ubiquitous feature in family board game collections — have to do with philosophical concepts from Jainism and Hinduism?

The modern version that we know was patented in 1892 by British toymaker Frederick Henry Ayres. The game’s origins however are not in 19th century Britain. Snakes and Ladders was adapted from a game that has its origins in the Indian subcontinent, where it existed in slightly varying forms as Gyan Chaupar or Gyaan Baaz, Moksha Patam, and Parampada Sopanam.

Some sources suggest that the Marathi saint, Dnyaneshwar, developed the game in the 13th century, using it to teach Jainism’s principles of karma to those who sought to understand the religion. Others interpret a passage from the 10th-century text Rishabha Panchasika as an even earlier reference to the game.

Over time, the game was adapted to suit different religious philosophies, with each iteration having its own spiritual and didactic purpose, as the last and final square of the game could be tweaked to represent some form of enlightenment, liberation or godliness. For example, in one version based on Vaishanva philosophy, a player reaching the square of Bhakti would ascend straight to Vaikuntha (Vishnu’s sacred abode where devotees are sent upon attaining liberation). The game was also adopted by Islamic Sufi traditions, where the goal of the player was to ascend towards Allah. The snakes and ladders on the board were meant to function as karmic devices, either thwarting or aiding a player’s efforts to reach the end goal. To emphasise this, the squares from which the tokens either ascended or descended were labelled with names of various virtues or flaws. The game, as a whole, was meant to educate players on which personality traits were morally desirable and which were repugnant. The number of snakes was typically much larger than that of ladders — often twice as many — to underscore the difficulties that line the path towards enlightenment, heaven and god. By the 19th century, Gyan Chaupar had made its way to Europe, appearing with names like Kismet, Leiterspiel and Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished.

The British version retained an emphasis on ideas of morality — with illustrations of good and bad deeds on the squares that bookended each ladder or snake — even as it did away with the spiritual connotations and nuances of the Indian versions. 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. Of course, the game also returned to India in this repackaged, commercial format and is most likely a fixture in most of our childhood memories — often with no reference to its origins. Now largely recognised as a race-to-the-finish game for children and families, transformations to Gyan Chaupar’s original rubric reveal how ideas and philosophies from the colonies were repackaged and appropriated by colonising forces.

Discover Indian Art is a monthly column that delves into fascinating stories on art from across the sub-continent, curated by the editors of the MAP Academy. Find them on Instagram as @map_academy