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SIDDHARTH Y. WAKANKAR
SAMBODHI-PURĀTATTVA
Jñānadeva created or invented this game with two purposes in mind-(1) Entertainment and (2) Knowledge of the Self leading to the Liberation from the cycle of Birth and Death.
As is well-known, Jñānadeva-though Yogi and a follower of the Nāthasampradaya-basically, was a Bhakta-devotee at the bottom of his heart. In order to show the path leading to self-realization (MOKSA), he created this Chart (Pata - throwing light on the consequences of the Karma-good or bad-which a human being undertakes. Here in this Play, he has described the phases of life, the merits and demerits, the psychological aspects of the human beings through which they are supposed to pass culminating in their Release from this Mortal world. This Game is played with the chowries and when one falls in a column of the ladders, there is progressive going up and if it falls in a column of the snakes, there is going down to the lower places. Sometimes this game was played by a pair of dice also. The throw of the dice represented the play of chance and it taught values. The ladders took the player to success while the snakes brought him down to hell, if he averred from his duties. ladders stand for virtues and the snakes stand for vices.
Taking inspiration from Jñanadeva who used this game to simplify the tenets of Hindu religion for the easier understanding of the common man, the preachers and teachers of other religious sects like Jains and the Svāminarāyana also used this game to spread the teachings of their religions. The Indian religions had a different outlook while this game in the West did not have any religious tinge attached to it and it was a source of only entertainment, as testified by Dr. Father Wallace of the St. Xavior's College, Ahmedabad, whom the present scholar had consulted. In keeping with the natural human tendency, every sect had its philosophical principles getting some place in this game and thus the number of houses or blocks went on increasing to suit the requirements of that philosophy. Every intelectual giant tried his hand at this interesting game and the game went through alterations. The biggest Chart was, however, prepared by a blind visionary saint from Maharashtra. His name is Gulabrao Maharaja, who considered himself to be the son of Jñanadeva and hence thought it his boundem duty to carry forth the tradition of Jñanadeva.. The Moksapata created by Grulabrao Maharaja had in all 285 houses and he encompassed Ayurveda, Yoga and different non-Hindu religious sects like Christianity, Judaism and the Zorastrian and Muslim. His Chart is an amalgamation of the different aspects from many religions and he has tried
