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MOKAPATA OF JÑĀNADEVA-THE ORIGIN OF THE
GAMES OF SNAKES AND LADDERS
SIDDHARTH Y. WAKANKAR
We, the Indians,are very proud of our glorious past and there is a tendency of some of the scholars to trace everything to the ancient literature, couched in Sanskrit. It is, however, very unfortunate that many of the scholars are very innocent about the contribution of India to the field of Games. I have been working on “The Games in Sanskrit Literature” since 1977 and have been very fortunate to unearth a wealth of Manuscripts describing the Games of Playing Cards and chessthe King of Indoor Games. In this short paper, I intend to draw the attention of scholars to one more startling fact, viz. the modern game of Snakes and Ladders also has its origin in India, like the other Board Game, viz.Chess. Many scholars may not feel like subscribing to this view of mine. I just intend to project the Indian tradition in this regard.
Games are the mirror of the society. The spread of games is neither bound by political boundaries nor by military might. As the games have relevance to the society, its culture, civilization, history, sociology, anthropology, psychology and other disciplines of a nation, they travel very freely from one culture to another in such a way that it is very difficult to pinpoint the exact origin of a particular gamethough, many countries, take claim to be the originators of some specific games. Without entering into any controversy, we may conveniently say, no accept, that it is very difficult to be precise about the extent one nation lends its games to other nations or borrows from other nations, because of the cultural and business contacts existing from the hoary past. One thing can be said with certainty that human nature is almost the same everywhere and that could be one of the reasons for the existence of some games common to many cultures and nations. The
* Deputy Director, Oriental Research Institute, Baroda.
