ĝaayam or Thaayam in Tamil ( Tamil Nadu region of India ).
Pakidakali, Kavidi Kali in Malayalam ( Kerala region of India ).
Ĝhauka Bara, Katte Mane, Gatta Mane in Kannada ( Karnataka region of India ).
Ěshta Chamma in Telugu ( Andhra Pradesh and Telangana regions of India ).
Kaana Duaa in Hindi (Madhya Pradesh region of India ).
ISTO or ahmedabad baji in gujarat(Gujarat region of india).
This game is played with special dice called COWRY shells and with different size grids with minimum of 2 players and maximum of 4 players. Indian ISTO ( Ashta Chamma ) is one of the oldest and traditional turn based family board game of INDIA which is similar to Ludo game, this game is called by various names in different languages in different regions of India.
3 inverted, 1 as it is - Move 3 squaresįor a player to win, he/she must move all their pawns to the center square.*************Amazing 3D Game in App Store**************.
2 as it is, 2 inverted - Move 2 squares.
For Ashta, 2 tokens and for Chamma 1 token can be brought back. When most of the tokens are dead, it is possible to bring back the dead tokens. If a player has cut once, all the coins can move into the inner circle, not necessary for every coin to cut opponent. If a player throws either a Chamma or an Ashta three times consecutively during his turn, he is out, and cannot use any of the moves. During an extra turn, either the same token or some other token can be played. When a player cuts an opponent's token, he gets an extra turn to play. Whenever a Chamma or an Ashta (4 or 8) is obtained during a throw of cowry shells, the player gets a bonus turn to throw the cowries. The first player to get all his tokens into home wins the game. Each token finishes its race when it manages to get into the home. Otherwise they keep circling around until at least one of the tokens of opponent is killed by them. However the tokens enter the inner squares, only when at least one of the opponent's tokens are killed. When a token reaches the square left of its home square, it further moves up into the inner squares and now moves in clockwise direction. In crossed boxes, killing is not possible. The killed token returns to its starting home square and has to go round all over again. If a player's token lands on a square occupied by opponent's token, then the opponent's token is "killed" and the player gets an extra turn to play. The tokens travel anti-clockwise in outer squares, clockwise in inner squares and finally lands up in central square (home), with a throw of Ashta or Chamma. Since each cowrie carry 2 points, 2 tokens for Chamma and 4 tokens for Ashta are entered on the board. The tokens enter the board only after a Chamma or Ashta is thrown. Each player has a fixed path to move pawns, which is in an anti-clockwise direction.Įach player's piece must completely traverse the outer squares before moving into the inner squares. Casting 4 or 8 gives the player an additional turn, which can continue until that player rolls a number other than 4 or 8 (namely 1, 2, or 3).ĭepending on the number rolled, the player can move one of their pawns that many number of squares on the board. Therefore, the possible values are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8. However, if every shell shows a value of 0, then the value of the roll is 4 and if all of them shows a value of 1, then the value of the roll is 8. The mouth of the shell landing upwards has a value of 1 and downwards has a value of 0. The game is controlled by throwing four Kowri shells and counting how many are 'as it is' versus those that land 'inverted': if all four shells land inverted it is called "chamma" and if all land as it is then it is called an "ashta".Įach player takes a turn to roll the Kowri shells. Similar to Ludo, it is a fascinating game of chance and skill.įour players each have four pawns, starting at different positions at the four crossed squares at the outermost ring. The game of Ashta Chamma/ Chowka Bhara is known by many names and is one of the oldest board games extant, still being played in certain parts of India.