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Brass Playing Board for Indian Hunt Game
South India or Sri Lanka
20th century
diameter: 30.8cm
This unusual item comprises a circular playing board fashioned from thick sheet brass. The top is incised with a square divided into 32 triangles, surrounded by four
pairs of a grim-looking hare being chased by an eager-looking mythical lion.
The board is for a variant of a traditional Indian hunt game. In such games, two players represented by two animals of unequal strength such as a sheep and a tiger, or
in this case a hare and a lion, are pitted against one another. According to I.L. Finkel, 'Sheep against tigers: Indian hunt games' in Topsfield (2006), there are many
versions of the grids used for such games and a variety of numbers of pieces, starting positions and other details, but all share the common theme that the more
'powerful' animal can 'kill' or 'take' the 'weaker' by jumping over it. The 'weaker' animals lack similar powers but must attempt to outsmart the stronger by acting in concert
or by adopting stratagems.
Often such games are played on a 'board' that is not a board at all but a diagram that the participants have scratched out on the ground, perhaps in a temple courtyard
or along a pavement, so a board as formalised as the example here seems unusual.
References: Topsfield, A., (ed.), The Art of Play: Board and Card Games of India, Marg Publications, 2006.
Inventory no.: 662
This Item is available - Ask about this item
Brass Playing Board for Indian Hunt Game
South India or Sri Lanka
20th century
diameter: 30.8cm
This unusual item comprises a circular playing board fashioned from thick sheet brass. The top is incised with a square divided into 32 triangles, surrounded by four
pairs of a grim-looking hare being chased by an eager-looking mythical lion.
The board is for a variant of a traditional Indian hunt game. In such games, two players represented by two animals of unequal strength such as a sheep and a tiger, or
in this case a hare and a lion, are pitted against one another. According to I.L. Finkel, 'Sheep against tigers: Indian hunt games' in Topsfield (2006), there are many
versions of the grids used for such games and a variety of numbers of pieces, starting positions and other details, but all share the common theme that the more
'powerful' animal can 'kill' or 'take' the 'weaker' by jumping over it. The 'weaker' animals lack similar powers but must attempt to outsmart the stronger by acting in concert
or by adopting stratagems.
Often such games are played on a 'board' that is not a board at all but a diagram that the participants have scratched out on the ground, perhaps in a temple courtyard
or along a pavement, so a board as formalised as the example here seems unusual.
References: Topsfield, A., (ed.), The Art of Play: Board and Card Games of India, Marg Publications, 2006.
Inventory no.: 662
This Item is available - Ask about this item
