Chausar OR 'Dayakattan'

Chausar is an intelligence and skill building game, which is played since the time of Mahabharata.

The counters are made of wood in a beehive shape.

The game of chausar is played on a board in the shape of a cross, each arm be

ing divided into three adjacent

tracks of 6 squares.

The four arms/limbs of the chausar board are conjoined at the center called “HOME”.

However, it can also be played by drawing the diagram (as shown in FIG 1) on a pi

ece of paper nicely.

Minimum number of players required to play - 2

Maximum number of players w

ho can play - 4

(However, the basic shape of square if changed and made hexagon, octagon etc can accommodate - 6, 8 players. If the shape is further changed, it can accommodate that many players.)

Rules for playing the game (Considering the basic shape as square. Being a tamilian, I will also include some tamil concepts) -

1. As shown in Fig 2 ( Assuming 4 players playing simultaneously), each player is awarded 6 coins.

For the purposes of illustration and for the sake of clarity, I will be illustrating only player 1 playing the game.

2. Each player will start his or her game when he or she puts 'dayam' OR one in the dice or 'dayakattan'.

3. The route of player 1 starts as shown in Fig 3. After putting one in the dice,

the player 1 will traverse the route as shown in Fig 3. For each coin to come inside the field, one needs to be put in the dice. So, for 6 coins, one has to be put, one, 6 times in the dice.

4. This holds true for all players. Any player can start his or her play first or it can be mutually determined by an appropriate strategy (for example - the person who puts 12 first). In Hindi, 12 is also called, pau bara.

5. The game proceeds in a clockwise manner.

6. Consider player one starting at the START position as shown in FIG 3. He will be traversing around the complete board as shown in the figure by directed black arrows as

per the toss of a pair of dice.

7. The blocks where the cross is marked are safe blocks where no player can cut each other.

8. After traversing the whole board the player 1 will again reach his side, but, this time, he needs to traverse from the point marked by a check sign to point E one after the other. The traverse will be external as indicated by yellow lines ( not inside the blocks but over the lines as marked by the curved black arrow starting at the check sign and continuing at the points of yellow arrows), till the player reaches END or HOME.

9. If a player puts one, six OR twelve, he gets another turn.

10. Last rule - As shown in Fig 3. , when the PLAYER 1 is on the side of way HOME, i.e. when he/ she is traversing from check mark to point A, to point B.....point E; point E is called 'dokku' and is unsafe. If another player say PLAYER 2 lands in his or her point E near his or her home; this will lead to the cancellation of the PLAYER 1's coin and the PLAYER 1 has to start over with that coin from the start. So, one option is, if the PLAYER 1 has more coins, apart from that which is near the HOME, he or she can move the other coins during that particular turn.