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Indian games to be showcased in US
The "Asian Games: The Art of Contest" exhibition opens at the Asia Society in New York Oct 14.
The popular game of snakes and ladders has its origins in ancient India when it was more complex with players attempting to land on a "blessed" place that symbolised nirvana.
At the "Asian Games: The Art of Contest" exhibition that opens at the Asia Society in New York October 14, several ancient Indian games that depended on memory and skill will be showcased.
The exhibition will have over 200 works of art and examples of game sets dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century.
There will also be Persian and Indian court paintings and illuminated manuscripts of the 14th-18th century and Chinese and Japanese scroll paintings, screens and ceramics that depict game playing, according to a press release from the organisers.
The show, meant to be educative as well as fun, is aimed at children, students and scholars.
The show also makes evident that many of the games played today came from India. Games depending on memory and skill, such as playing cards, dominoes and mahjong, are all Chinese in origin.
But not polo. Though it was known in China in the 7th century, it started as a chase on horseback by the nomadic tribes of Asia, finding their way to India via Persia.
"Asian Games is organised so as to suggest the impact of particular games as well as the cultural values of their players," the statement said.
"Emphasis is given to games that have cross-cultural relevance and have inspired significant artworks. The exhibition is organised into four broad categories or types of games - chance, strategy, memory and matching, and physical skill."
The exhibition opens with games of chance, which include dice, pachisi (Parcheesi) and the Indian game that inspired snakes and ladders.
While early Indian sculptures depict the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati competing at dice, in miniature paintings they are generally depicted playing pachisi, as in a beautiful ink and watercolour painting, "Shiva and Parvati Playing Chaupar", from the late 17th century.
This painting, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum, depicts Shiva and her consort playing what was a sophisticated game involving skill, strategy and luck.
For centuries it was played with elaborate and varying rules throughout India by both the poor and the elite - Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan played a life-sized version of the game using court ladies as his "pieces".
The exhibition's section on strategy explores games in which positions, territories and battlegrounds are paramount and focuses on chess and weiqi, a game of intellectual skill. This section includes a magnificent Rajasthani ivory chess set dating from 19th-century India.
The exhibition examines the development of backgammon, a game of both strategy and luck, which is claimed by the Persians as their invention and remains a popular game in Iran today.
