Pachisi

Pachisi is a traditional Indian race game in which players move pieces around a cross-shaped board according to throws of cowrie shells. Its shared track and capture rules make movement a contest among opposing pieces.

Pachisi board: The cross-shaped playing surface used in Pachisi, with a central home and four arms divided into squares. Its four arms define the shared route pieces travel before returning to the center.
Mughal Empire: An early modern empire that ruled much of the Indian subcontinent from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Pachisi is associated with Mughal courtly play, especially under Emperor Akbar.
Parcheesi: An American board game adapted from Pachisi and first published in the United States in the nineteenth century. It carried a version of Pachisi's cross-board race into commercial tabletop play.
Indian culture: The diverse traditions, practices, and forms of expression associated with the Indian subcontinent. Pachisi is a longstanding game within this varied cultural setting.
Cowrie shell divination: A practice that interprets patterns formed by thrown cowrie shells as signs or outcomes. Pachisi uses shell faces as its randomizer, converting a throw into a move allowance.
Akbar: The third Mughal emperor, whose reign from 1556 to 1605 expanded and consolidated the empire. Accounts of Akbar's court describe large-scale Pachisi played on palace grounds.
Sorry!: A race board game in which players move pawns by drawing cards and can send opponents back to start. Its designers adapted elements of the Pachisi family for a card-driven game.
Mughal court: The imperial household and governing circle surrounding a Mughal emperor. Pachisi's association with palace courtyards links play to courtly spectacle and leisure.
Race game: A board game in which players race pieces along a route toward a goal. Pachisi belongs to this game family, where progress along a track is the central contest.
Fatehpur Sikri: A Mughal imperial city in present-day Uttar Pradesh, built largely during Akbar's reign. Its palace complex includes a courtyard floor associated with life-sized Pachisi play.

Linked from 3 pages