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Evidence for Diviyan Keliya
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.780
Type Contemporary rule description
Location Sri Lanka
Date 1909-01-01 - 1909-12-31
Rules One player has two leopards, the other has 24 cows. Play begins by each player taking turns to place their pieces, and then can move to one adjacent intersection. Leopards capture cows by hopping over them. Leopards win by capturing all the cows, cows win by blocking the leopards from moving.
Content "Diviyan Keliya,. 'The Leopards' Game'; or Diviyalliya, 'the Leopards' Square'; or Kotiyo saha Harak, 'The Leopards and Cattle.'...
The board is a square with five lines passing across from each face, including the two outer ones; the diagonals which run into the angles . of the square and through the middle of each of its sides are also drawn. A triangle of six places for the pieces, enclosed by two extended diagonals, projects at the middle of each face, in addition.
This game is played by two persons, one of whom has two pieces called 'Leopards,' while the other has twenty-four pieces called 'Cattle,' with which he endeavours to shut up the Leopards, which are then said to be 'imprisoned.' It is played in the same manner as the last games, the Leopards 'eating' the Cattle one at a time, by jumping over them into a vacant place. The stations for the pieces are at all meeting places of lines, and the pieces move along the lines, both at right angles and along the diagonals, going one step each time, excepting when the Leopard is making a capture. Small stones and fragments of earthenware are used as pieces.
The owner of the Leopards begins the game by placing one of them at the centre of the board, but any other place may be selected for it. One of the Cattle is next put down by the other player at any meeting-point of two or more lines where it will be safe from immediate attack, and his opponent then deposits the second Leopard at any other place which he prefers. Another of the Cattle is then placed on the board, and the rest follow after each move of a Leopard until all are in play, up to which time they cannot be moved on the board. In the meantime some of them will have been 'eaten'; and notwithstanding the large number of them they are almost certain to lose the game is the Leopards can capture eight. With careful play the Cattle will always win." Parker 1909: 581-583.
Confidence 100
Source Parker, H. 1909. Ancient Ceylon. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
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