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Evidence for Sokkattan (Sri Lanka)
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.828
Type Ethnography
Game Sokkattan
Location Sri Lanka
Date 1906-01-01 - 1906-12-31
Rules Standard Pachisi Board. Squares marked with "X" (counting from top): fifth in each outer row, fourth in central row. Three per player. Play begins in the central row of each player's arm of the board. Values of the cowries are: 0=6, 1=10, 2=2, 3=3, 4=4, 5=25, 6=12. A roll of 10 or 25 adds an extra move of 1. This extra move must be used to enter a new piece on the board if possible, if not possible then it can be assigned to any piece. Pieces on a space marked "x" are safe from being captured. Players throw dice until they receive a 2, 3, or 4, and then move. The value of an individual roll can only move one piece, but multiple pieces can be moved in turns with multiple rolls. If a player rolls the same number three times in a row, it does not count. Reference
Content "Pachis, 'Twenty-five,' is the Indian form of the same game. Its Tamil name is Sokkattan (commonly pronounced in COlombo Shok'otan); or according to Winslow's Dictionary Sorkettan or Sorkattan. This popular Indian game may be played by two, three, or four persons, and twelve counters are used, called Kay in Tamil and Sar in Hindustani; and also coloured red, yellow, black, and green, in sets of three. Blue being an unlucky colour is never used for counters in any game. If there be only two players each takes six counters. They are more or less dagaba-shaped, like those previously described. The board, called Silei, 'the cloth' in Tamil, is like that used for Pahada Keliya, and is always worked on cloth or velvet (Fig. 264). Crosses are marked on the fifth outer squares from the central enclosure, and on the fourth squares if the middle rows. In these squares the counters cannot be 'struck' by the opponents; they are termed Chira. The ordinary squares are called 'House' (ghara, Hind. or vidu, Tamil), and the central enclosure is the char-koni (hind.), 'the Square.' Six cowry shells are thrown as dice, after being shaken in the closed hands. The score is as follows:—When all the mouths are upward it counts 12, barah; if five mouths be upward it is 25, pachis; if two, three, or four mouths be upward the score is 2, do; 3, tin; and 4, char, respectively. If only one mouth be upward the score is 10, das; and when no mouth is upward it counts 6, choka. Whenever 10 or 25 is thrown the player has another throw, abd if at the second throw one of the same numbers fall it counts accordingly, that is, another 10 or 25. But if either of these numbers be thrown a third time consecutively nothing is counted, and this throw cancels the two previous throws of 10 or 25, the score of the whole three throws being now 0. The right to have an additional throw would still remain, and the score would then begin afresh. There are also additional throws after 6 or 12 has fallen. To begin the game, each player throws the shells in his turn in the right-hand order; until he obtains a 10 or 25 his counters cannot enter the board. Whenever either of these two numbers is thrown it is called a 'win' and an addition of 1 is made to the score. If the player have counters awaiting entry or re-entry at the time, this extra allowance must always be expended in paying for one of them, 1 being charged for the entry or re-entry of each counter. If all be in the game the extra 1 is added to the rest of the score; thus a throw of 10 is counted as 11, and 25 is reckoned as 26. Excepting that this extra may be used separately, the amount of each throw cannot be subdivided among different counters. In the case of the additional throw of the shells after a throw of 6, 10, 12, or 25, the amounts of the two throws may be used separately, without subdivision—either to bring a counter into an opponent's square so as to 'strike' his counters, and then move onward to the extent of the other part of the score; or the tow parts may be employed in moving forward two counters. The counters are not blocked as in Pahada Keliya. As they pass down the middle row on their way into the central enclosure they are aid on their sides to distinguish them from counters that may be moving outwards. To enter the central enclosure the exact number required must be thrown. If the counter be in the last square this can only be obtained by throwing 10 or 25, the extra score of 1 which either of these receives being utilised for the purpose." (Parker 1909: 619–621)
Confidence 100
Source Parker, H. 1909. Ancient Ceylon. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
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