One of Sir William Jones' Brahman correspondents, Radha
Kant, informed him that it is stated in an old Hindoo law book,
that the wife of Ravan King of Lanka, the capital of Ceylon
invented chess to amuse him with an image of war, when his
metropolis was besieged by Rama in the second age of the world,
and this is the only tradition which takes precedence in date of
the Hindu Chaturanga.
The Princess Anna Comnena in the life of her father Alexius
Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople who died A.D. 1118, informs
us that the game of chess which she calls Zatrikion was
introduced by the Arabians into Greece, The Arabians had it from
the Persians, who say that they themselves did not invent it, but
that they received it from the Indians, who brought it into
Persia in the time of the Great Chosroes, who reigned in Persia
48 years, and died A.D. 576, he was contemporary with the
Emperor Justinian who did A.D. 565.
Of all the claims which have been advanced to the invention
and origin of chess, that of the Hindu Game the Chaturanga is the
most ancient, and its accounts contain the earliest allusion worthy
of serious notice to anything partaking of the principles and form
of chess. The description of it is taken from the Sanskrit text,
and our first knowledge of it is obtained through the works of Dr.
Hyde, 1693, and Sir William Jones, 1784, Professor Duncan
Forbes in a History of Chess, dedicated to Sir Frederic Madden
and Howard Staunton, published in 1860, further elaborated the
researches of his predecessors and claims by the aid of his better
acquaintance with chess, and improved knowledge of the Sanskrit
to have proved the Chaturanga as the first form of chess beyond
a shadow of doubt. Accounts of it also appear in native works
published in Calcutta and Serampore in the first half of this
century, and it receives further confirmation in material points,
from eminent Sanskrit scholars, who refer to it rather incidentally
than as chess-players.
The accounts of the Hindu Chaturanga (which means game of
"four angas," four armies, or "four species of forces," in the
native language, Hasty-aswa-ratha-padatum, signifying
elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers) (According to the
Amara Kosha, and other native works as explained by Dr. Hyde and
Sir William Jones) give a description of the game sufficiently
clear to enable anyone to play it in the present day.
NOTE. We have tried it recently. So great of course is the element
of luck in the throw, that the percentage of skill though it might
tell in the long run is small, perhaps equal to that at Whist.
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With every allowance for more moderate estimates of antiquity by
some Sanskrit scholars, the Chaturanga comes before any
of the games mentioned in other countries sometimes called chess,
but which seem to bear no affinity to it. The oldest of these
games is one of China, 2300 B.C., attributed to Emperor Yao or
his time, another in Egypt of Queen Hatasu daughter of Thotmes
I, 1771 to 1778 B.C., and that inscribed on Medinet Abu at
Egyptian Thebes, the palace constructed by Rameses IV
(Rhameses Meiammun, supposed grandfather of Sesostris) who
according to the scrolls, we are told reigned 1559 to 1493 B.C.,
and is said to be the monarch represented on its walls. According
to the Bible Chronology he would be contemporary with Moses
who lived 1611 to 1491 B.C.
The moves of all the pieces employed in the Chaturanga were
the same as those made in Asia and Europe down to the close of
the Fifteenth century of our era. The Queen up to that time was
a piece with only a single square move, the Bishop in the original
game was represented by a ship, the Castle or Rook (as it is now
indiscriminately called) by an elephant, the Knight by a horse,
the two last named have never at any time undergone the slightest
change, the alteration in the Bishop consists only in the extension
of its power of two clear moves, to the entire command of its own
coloured diagonal. The total force on each side taking a Pawn
as 1 for the unit was about 26 in the Chaturanga as compared
with 32 in our game. There appear ample grounds for believing
that the dice used, constituted the greatest if not the main charm
in the game with the Brahmans, and that the elimination of that
element of chance and excitement, destroyed its popularity with
them.
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