Pachgarhwa
From Wikinfo
| Pachgarhwa |
| First Description: E. de M. Humphies, 1906 |
| Cycles: One |
| Ranks: Two |
| Sowing: Pussa Kanawa |
| Region: India (Uttar Pra- desh) |
Pachgarhwa a mancala game, which was first described in 1906 by E. de M. Humphries, a civil servant appointed as the Sub-divisional Officer at Karwi Sub-division at United Provinces, Northern India (today in the Bandi District of Uttar Pradesh).
No cultural background is given except that it "appears to be more popular than its intrinsic interest would seem to merit".
Rules
The board consists of two rows, each one with five holes.
Initially there are five pieces in each hole. The counters are made of a material called kankar, presumably a mineral used as a construction material, a calcareous laterite with a high lime content.
Initial Position
Each player controls the holes on his side of the board.
At his turn a player takes all the pieces from any hole on his side of the board and sows them in an anticlockwise direction, one in each hole. After the player has distributed all the counters, he takes those in the next hole and continues the move by sowing them.
The turn ends when the last stone is put into a hole, which is followed by an empty one.
If the hole following the empty one is not empty, after a player has finished sowing, he captures its contents.
According to the description the game ends when "all the pieces on the board are exhausted", but according to the way of sowing and capturing, it is impossible to empty the board. Humphries also didn't explain what would happen when a player has no pieces to distribute.
Víktor Bautista i Roca suggested:
- The game ends when both players agree that it is impossible to capture any pieces and each player takes those on his side.
- If a player can't play, he must pass.
The player who captures more seeds wins the game.
Pachgarhwa was played in several rounds, in which holes could be captured, but the exact rules weren't given as "by that time things began to get complicated and I was unable to discover how, if ever, the game ended".
References
- Humphries, E. de M.
- Notes on Pachesi and Similar Games, as played in Karwi Subdivision, United Provinces. In: Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1906; 2 (New Series): 117-127. (Republished in: Ray, N. & Ghosh, A. (Ed.) Sedentary Games of India. The Asiatic Society, Calcutta (India) 1999, 77-78.)
- Murray, H. J. R.
- A History of Board-Games other than Chess. Oxford University Press, Oxford (UK) 1951, 169.
© Wikimanqala.
By: Víktor Bautista i Roca
Under the CC by-sa 2.5 license.
