Language, Music & Games
Snakes and Ladders (Moksha Patam)
medievalMedieval IndiaGame boards & traditionPan-Indian / unspecified
600 CE
A moral-instruction board game where virtues (ladders) and vices (snakes) speed or hinder progress.
- Dated
- 600 CE–1500
- As scholars put it
- medieval
- Originator
- Medieval India
- Source text
- Game boards & tradition
- Region
- Pan-Indian / unspecified
- Discipline
- Language, Music & Games
- Evidence
- Documented
- Confidence
- High
- Verification
- Reference-cited
Meanwhile in the West
Commercialised in Britain/US as Snakes and Ladders / Chutes and Ladders.
Fair to say
The moral framing was largely stripped out in Western versions.
Path to modern innovation
A popular children's game worldwide.
Transmission
Brought to Britain in the colonial era and re-published.
- Rajasthan, by the 18th c..
In moksha patam, ladders of virtue lift the player toward liberation while snakes of vice drag them down.
- London, 1892.
An English edition is published as Snakes and Ladders. It keeps the morality but drops the spiritual goal.
- Springfield, Massachusetts, 1943.
Chutes and Ladders, with playground slides instead of snakes, becomes an American childhood staple.
References
- 1Histories of board games
Further reading
Corrections and additional sources: edit IND-066 on GitHub.