Ancient Board Games Carved in Stone — India's Temple Petroglyphs
- by Rahul Singh
-
Long before paper, long before plastic, Indians played board games on stone. Etched into the flooring slabs of temple mantapas, carved into the plinth of sacred gateways — these geometric diagrams are petroglyphs, silent evidence of a civilisation at play.
At the foot of the Chamundi Hills in Mysore, an ancient stone mantapa marks the beginning of the famous 1000 steps. On its stone plinth are deeply gouged diagrams of Adu Huli (Goats and Tigers) and Sixteen Sepoys. At the summit, within the gateways of the Chamundeshwari temple itself, more boards are carved — two more Adu Huli boards, Sixteen Sepoys, and Nakshatra Aata.
The team at Ramsons Kala Pratishtana — R.G. Singh, Raghu Dharmendra, and Dr. Dileep K.C.R. Gowda — has spent 25 years visiting temples, ghats, forts, and village mantapas across India to document these petroglyphs. At Tulsi Ghat, Varanasi, they found Nau Keti Keta. At the Jalakanteshwara temple within Vellore fort, Navakankari. At Chidambaram's Tillai Natarajar temple, Pagaday.
The pattern is always the same — shaded spots, elevated platforms, places where pilgrims rested and travellers waited. The games came naturally.
Every board game we sell at Ramsons carries this history in its weave.
