Chaturanga: the Indian origin of chess

It is very likely that you know how to play chess. It is a difficult game, but it is quite common to know the basic movements, and even the occasional play. It is a game that requires prudence, strategy and reasoning, and for this reason many experts recommend it to exercise our mind.

What is also very likely is that you do not know the origin of this game. Don't worry, it's normal. Its origins are quite unclear and although there is a consensus on its direct ancestor, the Indian chaturanga, it is still unknown when and why it was born.

In this article we are going to try to unravel the mysteries of chaturanga, the older brother of our current chess.

The Indian chaturanga and the origins of chess

the persian poem shahname, better known in our language as the book of kings, was written by the poet Ferdouní around the year 1,000 AD. c. It tells the story of Persia from the creation of the world to the Muslim invasion, and It also includes a curious legend: the story of how and why chaturanga or chess was born ancient.

Legend has it that the king had died and his sons wanted to face each other in a fierce fight to reach the throne.. Alarmed by the inevitable bloodshed, some elders proposed that they settle their differences on a board. The princes agreed. Thus, on a huge table of teak wood and ivory, a series of pieces were arranged, which the princes had to move carefully to gain victory. In this way, they could fight for the coveted throne without spilling a single drop of blood. That's the legend, but what about the truth? What historical evidence do we have of this older brother of modern chess?

According to some authors, already in the Mahabharata (3rd century B.C. C) there are references to chaturanga, but these are quite confusing. On the other hand, there are four other very old documents in which there are mentions of the Indian chaturanga. The first of them is the love poem known as Vasavadatta, written in Sanskrit around the 7th century. In the poem we find a confusing reference to a game where the pieces are shaped like green and yellow frogs, which, a priori, does not have much to do with chaturanga.

Another of the historical sources that mention it, this time in a much clearer way, is the Jarsha-Charita, also in Sanskrit and also from the 7th century, which recounts the life of Emperor Harsha. The text refers to the incredible peace that the population experienced under this king; the absolute absence of war caused tedium to the men of the war, who entertained themselves by playing chaturanga.

We can see, then, that from the beginning it is considered a game of a warrior nature. Around the year 600 we already find the chaturanga in Persia, since the Karnamak, a Persian text, mentions a king who is distracted by this game. However, the Persian source that most obviously refers to the chaturanga is the Chatrany-namak, in which the pieces are specified, but their movements are not specified.

• Related article: "The 8 branches of the Humanities"

“The four parts” of an army

The chaturanga is originally from India. In this, both Persian and Muslim sources agree, who adapted the game, although with few changes. For the Persians it was chatrang; for the Arabs, the ash-shatranj, a name that ultimately gave rise to the medieval acedrex and our modern chess. The game traveled from India to Europe along the Silk Road. First he reaches Persia; according to the already mentioned Chatrany-namak, through an Indian embassy. Later, with the conquest of Persia by the Arabs, it spread through the Muslim world and finally reached medieval Europe.

The Sanskrit name chaturanga, literally means "the four parts" or "the four members" (from chatur, "four", and anga, “member”). It is known that in 7th century India the word also referred to the army, which consisted of 4 members or divisions: infantry (i.e. foot soldiers), cavalry, elephants, and carriages. It is precisely this division that reflects the primitive game of chaturanga; a faithful reflection of a battlefield in which two armies face each other.

According to H.J.R Murray, author of an interesting study on the origins of chess, Indian chaturanga was a war game where the battlefield was the board (known as ashtapada). Just like in modern chess, To achieve victory, each of the two players cannot use anything other than their own logic and reasoning.. That is why many historians believe that the origins of the chaturanga owed more to a military education than a hobby.

• You may be interested in: "The 5 ages of History (and their characteristics)"

And how was chaturanga played?

In the Persian sources the pieces are cited, but not the movements. Those who did record the rules of the game were the Arabs. Probably this version (the ash-shatranj) offered discrepancies with the Indian original, but historians believe that these would be rather few.

Again following H.J.R Murray, and also chess champion Harry Golombek (who seconded many of his theories), the chaturanga board was not marked, as our chess boards are. current. Yes, there would be some color marks that would have no use and would probably be heirs to games prior to chaturanga and that were played on the same board.

It seems that the game was always for two players, who handled the pieces of the two opposing armies on the board. There was, however, a version for four players, called chaturaji, which was initially believed to precede the version for two. Currently it is known that chaturaji is a variant of chaturanga.

The pieces, as well as the movements, are surprisingly similar to those of current chess. First, there would be raja (the king), which would be decisive for the game, since killing this piece meant, as now, the end of the game. In addition to the king, there would be the minister or adviser, called mantri in Sanskrit, which would be equivalent to the current queen. The two elephants (haha) would be the ancestors of the bishop, while the two chariots (rat-ha) would be our towers. Finally, we would find two horses (ashwa) and eight foot soldiers (padati), the equivalent of our pawns.

The absence of a female figure in both the Indian chaturanga and the Persian chatrang is striking. We also find no trace of the queen in the Arabic ash-shatranj. So when did this piece appear?

The appearance and rise of the lady

The queen or lady does not appear until the Indian chaturanga reaches medieval Europe. There it becomes, as we have already commented in another section, the acedrex, and it is then, and only then, that the counselor or minister is replaced by the queen. The use of this piece became widespread throughout the 12th century, coinciding with powerful female figures such as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Blanca of Castilla.

The phenomenon is understood if we consider that, during the European Middle Ages, the wives of kings and nobles enjoyed much higher political status than is generally assumed. In the absence of her husbands, they were the ones who took the reins of the fiefdom, which is why, in a certain way, they carried out the practical functions that the minister or counselor did in the Persian and Arab world. The changes in the Indian chaturanga and its adaptations to the European reality show that women, even with their limitations, had much greater consideration than we think.

in the poem scachs d'amor (the chess of love), written in the 15th century, describes a game of acedrex where the queen is already moving with the current moves. The poem compares the movements of the queen and the king to the courtship of Mars and Venus, and makes it very clear that when the queen is annihilated by the enemy, the game is lost. It's still curious how the rise of the piece of the lady or queen, especially in the Iberian Peninsula, coincides with Isabel la Católica, one of the most powerful queens of the fifteenth century.