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Evidence for Siga (Sri Lanka)
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.1483
Type Ethnography
Location 6°55'33.58"N, 79°51'29.14"E
Date 1909-01-01 - 1909-12-31
Rules 5x5 board, with an X in the central square of each side of the board, as well as the central square of the board. Two pieces per player. Four cowrie shells used as dice. Throws have the value of the number of mouths that land face up, with no mouths up = 8. Players start on opposite sides of the board, the first point on their track being the marked square on that side. players move in an anti-clockwise direction around the board, until reaching the space before the starting space, at which point they move into the space above it, and proceed around the inner part of the board in a clockwise direction, until below the central square. Players enter a piece with a throw of 1. Throws of 1 or 8 give the player another turn. When a player's piece lands on the same space as a space with an opponent's piece, the opponent's piece is removed from the board and must enter again, and the player causing this receives another throw. Pieces resting on a marked square cannot be sent back to start. To reach the central space, the player must throw the exact number required, but may also divide the value of the throw between two pieces in order to move one or both into the centre. The first player to move both pieces to the central space first wins.
Content "The Indian Sige. As played in Colombo by two persons on a diagram marked on the ground, or worked on a piece of cloth which is laid on a mat placed on the ground, this is similar to the last; but only 25 squares are employed, 5 being on each dei. The middle square of each side and the central square are marked by two diagonals, and when in these positions the counters cannot be attacked. The arrows show the direction of the moves from one Katti...Instead of dice, four cowries are thrown. down on a mat or on the ground, after being shaken in the closed hands. They are counted as follows:- When all the mouths are upward they count 4; for three, two or one mouth upwards, 3, 2, or 1 is counted; and no mouth upward counts 8. No throw counts until the player has thrown 1: this permits one counter to be placed in the first Katti ready for moving forward at the next throw. The second counter may be put on the same square after another 1 has been thrown. In this game the numbers thrown are neither subdivided nor added together excepting as stated below; each throw gives the length of the move of one of the counters. Ech player has an additional throw and move of either counter on throwing 1 or 8, or on cutting out or 'chopping' an opponent's counter. When 'chopped,' the counters must begin afresh and cannot reenter until the player has again thrown 1. On coming up to the central square the exact number required to bring one or both counters into it must be thrown; and at this point, only, it is permissable to divide the amount of the throw, so as to bring one or both counters into the centre." Parker 1909: 607-608.
Confidence 100
Spaces Inside
Source Parker, H. 1909. Ancient Ceylon. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
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