Exploration of Ancient Board Games at Aurangabad Caves, Maharashtra (original) (raw)
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Project Khēḷiya: Mapping India's Heritage Games
Playing with the Past: Proceedings of the National Conference on Ancient and Medieval Indian Games, 2020
Khēḷiya originated as a joke term for the tendency to find board game patterns at archaeological sites, especially among students and alumni of the Centre for Extramural Studies and the INSTUCEN Trust. Serendipitously however, it has turned into an unanticipated survey of board games etched on the floors of various monuments throughout the country. Here we report board games brought to our attention from Hampi, Khokhari, Mahabalipuram, Badami, Nasik and Ellora. While several are well-known games, some are now fossils as their intangible (rules) and perishable (pieces and dice) are lost. We see Project Khēḷiya as the beginnings of an archaeological survey of games throughout India, fronted by amateurs, as a project to document our intangible heritage. This is of urgent need as any monuments are being refloored, leading to a permanent loss of this heritage.
Old Games in New Garb: Challenges in Musealisation of Ancient Indian Games
Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology, 2024
The musealisation of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has seen considerable activity in the last few years, as musea redefine themselves as inclusive, performative spaces. The authors have been looking to apply the learnings of ICH to board games, a part of Indian culture relatively neglected as a discipline within museology. Our attempts take a two-part approach. The first includes documentation of literary, archival, oral and archaeological sources to create a basic knowledge pool of nearly 100 Indian games, while the second includes attempts to educate the general public and thereby revive fading traditions of playing board games, in the face of challenges posed by video games and other electronic forms of entertainment. Doing so, we have created standardised rules and boards for games including Aṣṭāpada, Ashtachamma, Mōkṣapaṭam, Navakankari, Pachīsī, Tiger-and-Goat, Baghchal, Tablan, Sāgargōṭē, Kāchāpāni, Viti-Dandu, Laghōrī and Pallānguzhi using everyday materials. Our experiments encourage us to believe that game musealisation is socially sustainable.
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 2020
Graffiti game boards attest to the presence of historical populations at an archaeological site and, in some cases, assist in dating an archaeological context. While games suggest the presence of a social activity, their contextual significance compared to the graffiti of texts and images, pottery finds, and other diagnostic tools of archaeology is open to further enquiry. The presence of multiple board game traditions at Gebel el-Silsila in Egypt creates an ideal environment to study the differences between graffiti texts and images, excavated materials and game boards when they are found in the same location. It is shown that game boards may confirm human presence in different historical time periods for which only limited additional evidence exists, or they may signal the presence of a different historical population. Their symbolic significance remains unclear, but game boards otherwise provide an independent source of information and an asset to a general archaeological inquiry.
Serious Games & Cultural Heritage: A Case Study of Prehistoric Caves
Virtual Systems and Multimedia, 2009
The creation and development of multimedia devices destined for the general public pose many questions for designers. In this article we present two multimedia applications -a Serious Play and a Serious Game -which were part of an experiment performed in 2006. This article will present both devices designed specifically for the promotion of a prehistoric heritage site -the Gargas caves -and describe how they were received by the general public. The aim of this task was to identify the added value of video play and video game items within the context of everyday use by the general public, and particularly by children.
Serious Games & Cultural Heritage: A Case Study of Prehistoric Caves
2009 15th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia, 2009
The creation and development of multimedia devices destined for the general public pose many questions for designers. In this article we present two multimedia applications -a Serious Play and a Serious Game -which were part of an experiment performed in 2006. This article will present both devices designed specifically for the promotion of a prehistoric heritage site -the Gargas caves -and describe how they were received by the general public. The aim of this task was to identify the added value of video play and video game items within the context of everyday use by the general public, and particularly by children.
2013, Building Blocks of the Lost Past: Game Engines and Inaccessible Archaeological Sites
2014
This paper explores an idea for creating an informal and easily approachable media platform to promote archaeological sites that are inaccessible and lesser known to the public in the form of an educational game. This game will create an illusion of a real archaeological site visit, allowing players direct contact with its environment and surroundings as well as interaction with its ancient and contemporary inhabitants. In an era of international connectivity, globalization, and social networking, it seems appropriate to choose the online computer and mobile gaming industries as media for spreading the interest in heritage and archaeology. Kotarba-Morley AM, J Sarsfield, J Hastings, J Bradshaw and PN Fiske (2013). Building Blocks of the Lost Past: Game Engines and Inaccessible Archaeological Sites. In: Earl G, T Sly, A Chrysanthi, P Murrieta-Flores, C Papadopoulos, I Romanowska and D Wheatley (Eds.), Archaeology in the Digital Era, Vol. 2, Amsterdam University Press, 949-960.
Where did the Games Go? Inquiry of Board Games in Medieval Marathi Literature in India
Board game studies journal online, 2022
India has a very prominent traditional board game culture, which is evident through numerous game boards and game pieces that are surviving. The spectrum of game board variations documented displays its association with the rich culture of crafts in India. Apart from these sets, there are ample examples of game board graffiti's present in various public spaces, temples being one of the most prominent of them. Many scholars, just to name a few, I. Finkel, R.K Bhattacharya, and L.K. Soni (published in 2011); Vasantha (2003); Fritz and Gibson (2007); Rogersdotter (2015), have documented and/or commented on these appearances of game boards in spaces. Most of these documentations are from the region of Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. There are game board surveys from the states of Punjab (Gupta, 1926), Gujarat (Soni and Bagchi, 2011), Marwad (Samanta, 2011), Haryana (Sinha and Bishwas, 2011). Nevertheless, for some reason, there is very little work on board games in the state of Maharashtra. Though the literary documentation of sedentary games of Maharashtra is found in a book by 'Anant Babaji Deodhar' named 'Marāṭhī Khēḷāncē Pustaka' published in 1905; which mainly is anthropological documentation. It does not touch upon the references of this game information. Sāripata (chausar), pat Songtyā (asta chima) existed in the Marathi household until the earlier generation (Pre WWII) in form of cloth boards and wooden pieces. However, it does not show its appearance as game board graffiti's in spaces in the post-Yadav period (14th century). Few games like mancala, Indian hunt games do show their presence in graffitis but seldom in literature. Literary pieces of evidence of regional literature remain untraced. No specific research has happened in literature in this era in the context to board games and thus the paper tries to throw light on evidence of board game mentions in medieval Marathi
Video games have been productively used in education since at least the 1970s, and archaeology has been a favourite subject in entertainment for much longer. A recovering tourism industry, an expanding video game market, and a growing interest in 'popular' archaeology concur to create a promising environment for exploring new solutions in video game edutainment (educational entertainment) related to the human past. In the present paper, we suggest that the puzzle-game format in edutainment has not yet been exploited to its full potential, especially in relation to archaeology; we argue for a model centred on the gradual acquisition of new information through a 'virtual handbook', and the constant interaction with simulated ancient artefacts, punctuated by rewarding 'thrill of discovery' moments.
Ten or more features, each consisting originally of an open circle formed by a series of small holes, are present on two Late Archaic superimposed prepared floors at a shellmound on the outer coast of Chiapas, Mexico. These puzzling features bear a strong resemblance to ethnographic and ethnohistoric scoreboards used in indigenous dice games. Accordingly, the approximately 5,000 year-old features also were most likely game boards. Archaeologists have traced other Mesoamerican games into deep prehistory, including rubber ball games and another dice game known in Aztec times as patolli. These data provide evidence for the cultural importance and longevity of gaming in Mesoamerica.