2. About Chaupar
One of the oldest indoor games of India,
Chaupar finds mention in the epic
Mahabharata. Akba and his descends also
used to play Chaupar .This board game was
extremely popular in ancient times. Played
with pawns or shells the dice is rolled and the
players strategize the movement of their
pawns. Chaupar can be better understood as
an older version of the modern-day Ludo. The
game of ‘Chaupar’ also known as ‘Chausar’.
The word Chaupar is composed of two
Sanskrit words ‘Chau and Para’; ‘Chau’ i.e.
Chatur means four and ‘Para’ i.e. Pata means
cloth board; which form the four arms of the
playing surface.
3. When was it created
• It is believed that Chaupar was created around
the 4th centuryA.D.Chaupar is more complex
and was regarded as the more aristocratic
game.Today Chaupar is regarded as a trivial
pastime folk game. Chaupar might be ancient
and very old game, but nothing is certain
about its age. If we look at the equipment used
in playing Chaupar, we find that the oblong
dice was used to play Chaupar and they are as
old as the 3rd millennium B.C., while four-
armed cruciform board appears to be
development from much simpler gamin
boards, marked in squares or houses, of the
same period.
5. Games can last anything from 30 mins to hours and hours.
Technically, a game can never end depending on the players. This is possible if players keep
doing "Alkhee" ghaats.
It is an individual game played between a maximum of four player
The center column on each arm of the cross is the "home column" for each player's men after they cross the flower motif. The
starting point for each player is the flower motif on the column to the left of his home column. f two of your pieces land on the
same square, they became a ‘super piece’ and move together. The same goes for 3 and 4 pieces
An extra turn is granted by playing a 6, 12, 10 or "8" (25 square move).
There are 8 safe squares (called Cheere).
6.
7. In the great epic ‘Mahabharata’ there are two famous
instances of kings ruined by gambling. Namely, it contains
a story which starts with a dice game called Chaupar
played between King Duryodhan and Yudhishthir, whose
families were in conflict. The dice match was a way to
resolve this conflict. The man who knew how to throw the
dice was a sure winner. In the ‘Ramayana’ there is also
mentioning of gambling games and gambling boards. The
gambling board games here generally referred to as
‘Aksha’ means dice.
History
