Thread by @IndiaArtHistory

Chaturanga (The Game of Chess)
(A Thread)

Chaturanga (Sanskrit: चतुरङ्ग; caturaṅga), or catur for short, is an ancient Indian strategy game which is commonly theorized to be the common ancestor of the board games chess, shogi, sittuyin, makruk, xiangqi and janggi.

@Go_Movie_Mango @Redhotpedia @imgarv786 @Belladonna_here Chaturanga developed in the Gupta Empire, India around the 6th century AD. In the 7th century, it was adopted as shatranj in Sassanid Persia, which in turn was the form of chess brought to late-medieval Europe.

@Go_Movie_Mango @Redhotpedia @imgarv786 @Belladonna_here The exact rules of chaturanga are unknown. Chess historians suppose that the game had similar rules to those of its successor, shatranj. In particular, there is uncertainty as to the moves of the Gaja (elephant).

@Go_Movie_Mango @Redhotpedia @imgarv786 @Belladonna_here Sanskrit caturaṅga is a bahuvrihi compound, meaning "having four limbs or parts" and in epic poetry often meaning "army". The name comes from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata. An ancient battle formation, akshauhini, is like the setup of chaturanga.

@Go_Movie_Mango @Redhotpedia @imgarv786 @Belladonna_here Chaturanga was played on an 8×8 uncheckered board, called ashtāpada,which is also the name of a game. The board sometimes had special markings, the meaning of which are unknown today. These marks were not related to chaturanga, but were drawn on the board only by tradition.

@Go_Movie_Mango @Redhotpedia @imgarv786 @Belladonna_here Chess historian H. J. R. Murray conjectured that the ashtāpada was also used for some old race-type dice game, perhaps similar to chowka bhara, in which the marks had meaning.

@Go_Movie_Mango @Redhotpedia @imgarv786 @Belladonna_here Banabhatta's Harsha Charitha (c. AD 625) contains the earliest reference to the name chaturanga:

“Under this monarch, only the bees quarrelled to collect the dew; the only feet cut off were those of measurements, only from Ashtâpada one could learn how to draw up a chaturanga.”

@Go_Movie_Mango @Redhotpedia @imgarv786 @Belladonna_here How Chess travelled from India to Persia

During the reign of the later Sassanid king Khosrau I (531–579), a gift from an Indian king (possibly a Maukhari Dynasty king of Kannauj)included a chess game with sixteen pieces of emerald and sixteen of ruby (green vs. red).

@Go_Movie_Mango @Redhotpedia @imgarv786 @Belladonna_here The game came with a challenge which was successfully resolved by Khosrau's courtiers. This incident, originally referred to in the Mâdayân î chatrang (c. 620 AD), is also mentioned in Firdausi's Shahnama (c. 1010).
They Started calling it as Shatranj..

@Go_Movie_Mango @Redhotpedia @imgarv786 @Belladonna_here @threadreaderapp Now Pls unroll again as few modifications done..Thanks..😊