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Evidence for Gavalata
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.1685
Type Ethnography
Location South India
Date 1898-01-01 - 1898-12-31
Rules 5x5 square. Nine squares are marked: the four central squares of each side, the central square of the board, and the squares which are diagonally between them. Two or four players; each player begins on one of the marked outer squares, beginning on opposite sides if two are playing. Players use one or two cowries as pieces. Four or five cowries are used as dice, with the value of the throw equalling the number of mouths which land face up. Players proceed in a clockwise direction around the board, until they reach the space before the one in which they began, moving to the marked square to the right of the direction of play, and proceeding around the inner square of spaces in an anti-clockwise direction, until arriving at the central space. When a player's piece lands on a space occupied by the opposing player, the opponent's piece is sent back to the starting point. The first player to bring all their pieces to the central square wins.
Content "A similar game is played in southern India under the name of Gavalata, or "cowrie play," upon a square checkered board having an odd number of squares upon a side (fig. 158). Two or four persons play, each using one or two cowries as men, which they move according to the throws with four or five cowries. When two play, one starts at A and the other at B, moving in the direction of the arrows. The object is to traverse all the squares to the center. A player kills and sends back an opponent's piece when his own falls upon the same square, unless it rests in a protected square or u castle."" Culin 1898: 851.
Confidence 100
Source Culin, S. 1898. Chess and Playing-Cards. Washington: Government Printing Office.
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