caturanga

[Richard Barz]

I think that Ludo- if it is the same as the American game Pacheesi- is
modelled on the Indian game CaupaR, which was supposed to be especially
liked by Krishna.

Richard Barz
Australian National University

At 08:00 AM 7/27/00 +0100, you wrote:
>I recall reading that, more recently, the British board game "Ludo" was
>modelled on Caturanga.  Certainly (from the appearance of the latter in
>18-19 century miniatures) they look very similar.  Does anyone know if this
>is true?
>
>>>What is the connection between Indian caturanga and chinese chess
(xiangqi)?
>>>
>>
>>Chinese chess is said to be one of offspring of Indian chess as well as
>>the western chess.
>>It is also the case with Korean and Japanese ones, although the way of
>>spread is not clear.
>>
>>The largest Japanese dictionary, "Nihon Kokugo Dai Jiten" (Shougakkan
>>1976) explains that
>>"xiangqi" is a transliteration of "caturanga". (q.v. "shougi" ---
>>"xiangqi" is pronounced as
>>"shougi" in Japanese and  the character "jiang", which means a general or
>>commander in chief,
>>has taken place of "xiang", which means an elephant. By the way "qi" means
>>"go", a board game
>>of Chinese origin, or something like that. )
>>This explanation is based on Kindaichi Kyousuke's "Shougi Meigi Kou" (On
>>the name and meaning
>>of shougi) published in 1910 (in Japanese).
>>
>>Prof. Itoh Tomoatu of Sinology at Hokkaido University denies the
>>'transliteration' theory on the
>>ground of phonetical difference between the two words, and has it that the
>>name "xiangqi" derives
>>from the pieces of  'elephant (xiang)' in the game. See Itoh Tomoatu,
>>'Shougi Tangen' (The
>>Tracing of Origin of Japanese Chess), "Shougi Journal", 1984 (in Japanese).
>>
>>----
>>Nozawa Masanobu
>>E-mail: nozawa at la.numazu-ct.ac.jp
>
>
>Dr Valerie J Roebuck

>