Chaturanga Game

What is Chaturanga Chess?

Chaturanga Indian chess was a two-player strategy game simulating warfare between opposing armies. Unlike modern chess with its checkered board, chaturanga was played on a plain, uncheckered 8×8 grid called an ashtāpada. Some squares bore special markings — likely remnants from an older race game — but these had no function in chaturanga itself.

Each player commanded sixteen pieces: one Raja (king), one Mantri (minister), two Gaja (elephants), two Ashva (horses), two Ratha (chariots), and eight Padati (foot-soldiers). The pieces lined up similarly to modern chess, though with one key difference: the Rajas did not face each other directly. The white Raja started on e1 while the black Raja occupied d8.

The objective was capturing the opponent's Raja — not checkmate as we know it today. Most historians believe the king actually had to be taken, making ancient India chess more decisive than its modern descendant. Interestingly, stalemate counted as a win for the stalemated player, the opposite of today's draw rule.

The History and Origins of Chaturanga Chess

The earliest clear reference to chaturanga appears in the Sanskrit poet Banabhatta's Harshacharita, written around 625 AD during the reign of Emperor Harsha. The text describes a peaceful era where people learned about warfare only through playing chaturanga on the ashtāpada board — suggesting the game was already well-established as both entertainment and military education.

Some scholars push the origins earlier. Archaeological excavations at Lothal, a port city of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization in Gujarat, uncovered game pieces resembling chess pieces dating to approximately 2450 BC. Whether these pieces belonged to chaturanga or a predecessor game remains debated.

The chaturanga chess game spread along trade routes. By the 6th century, it reached Persia, where it became chatrang. A Persian text called the Chatrang Namak, dated between the 7th and 8th centuries, tells how an Indian king sent the game to the Persian Shah Nausharwan I (531-579 AD) as a challenge. The story claims India would pay tribute to Persia only if the Persians could decipher the game's rules — a testament to chaturanga's reputation for intellectual sophistication.

From Persia, the game passed to the Arabs following the Islamic conquest, becoming shatranj. Arab players refined the rules and produced the first chess literature, including game collections and strategic treatises. Through Spain and Sicily, shatranj entered medieval Europe, eventually transforming into modern chess by the late 15th century.

Chaturanga also traveled east. Chinese xiangqi, Korean janggi, Japanese shogi, Thai makruk, and Burmese sittuyin all descended from the Indian original, each adapting the game to local military traditions and cultural preferences.

Chaturanga Chess Rules: How It Was Played

While not all chaturanga rules survive with certainty, historians have reconstructed the likely gameplay by comparing early sources and descendant games.

The Pieces and Their Movements:

Piece

Sanskrit Name

Movement

King

Raja

One square in any direction (like modern king)

Minister

Mantri

One square diagonally only

Elephant

Gaja

Disputed — see below

Horse

Ashva

L-shape, jumping (identical to modern knight)

Chariot

Ratha

Any number of squares horizontally or vertically (identical to modern rook)

Foot-soldier

Padati

One square forward; captures diagonally (no two-square first move)

The Raja moved exactly like today's king — one square in any direction, staying out of attack.

The Mantri (minister) was far weaker than the modern queen. It could move only one square diagonally, making it one of the least powerful pieces on the board. This piece eventually became the queen through European modifications in the 15th century.

The Gaja (elephant) presents the greatest historical uncertainty. Three different movements appear in ancient sources: two squares diagonally with a jump (used in Persian shatranj), one square forward or diagonally (used in Thai and Burmese chess), or two squares orthogonally with a jump. The diagonal-jumping version became the medieval European bishop's predecessor.

The Ashva (horse) moved exactly like the modern knight — an L-shaped leap that could jump over other pieces. This movement has remained unchanged through 1,500 years of chess evolution.

The Ratha (chariot) moved like today's rook — any number of squares horizontally or vertically. Another piece whose movement survived intact into modern chess.

The Padati (foot-soldier) moved one square forward and captured diagonally, like the modern pawn. However, it lacked the two-square opening move. Promotion rules remain unclear — pawns may have always promoted to a Mantri, or possibly to the piece that originally occupied that file.

Winning the Game:

Victory came through capturing the Raja or reducing the opponent to just their Raja (called "baring" the king). There was no check announcement as a formal requirement — players simply had to be alert to threats against their king.

Using chess point values in Engine Evaluations

Modern chess engines assign point values to help evaluate positions, but applying this system to chaturanga reveals how different the game played. With the Mantri worth barely more than a Padati (moving only one diagonal square versus the queen's dominance of modern chess), piece values in chaturanga looked radically different:

Piece

Estimated Value

Ratha (Chariot)

~5 points

Gaja (Elephant)

~2.5 points

Ashva (Horse)

~3 points

Mantri (Minister)

~1.5 points

Padati (Foot-soldier)

1 point

The Ratha dominated chaturanga even more than the rook dominates modern chess, since no queen existed to challenge it. The weak Mantri and limited Gaja meant games progressed more slowly, with fewer dramatic tactical combinations. Endgames required patience — mating with a lone Ratha proved difficult without the powerful pieces modern players rely on.

Indian game chess: Summary

Chaturanga stands as the mother of all chess variants — the ancient India chess game that sparked a global phenomenon. From Indian courts to Persian palaces to European castles to online servers, the game's journey spans continents and millennia.

Key points to remember about this chaturanga game:

• Originated in India, documented by the 7th century AD
• Played on a plain 8×8 board (ashtāpada)
• Featured six piece types representing military divisions
• The Mantri (minister) moved only one diagonal square — nothing like today's queen
• The Raja had to be captured, not merely checkmated
• Stalemate was a win, not a draw
• Spread to Persia (chatrang), Arabia (shatranj), and eventually Europe

You can still play chaturanga today on platforms like Chess.com, experiencing firsthand how differently chess felt before the modern queen revolutionized the game. For any serious student of chess history, trying the original version offers valuable perspective on how far the game has traveled.