These are traditional forms of war-games with Alquerque rules:
- Lau kata kati, (Lower Bengal, and United Provinces, Karwi Subdivision, where it is called Kowwu Dunki);
- Dash-guti (Central Provinces and United Provinces, Karwi Subdivision, where it is named Kowwu Dunki, as above);
- Egara-guti (Central Provinces);
- Pretwa (Behar);
- Gol-skuish (Central Provinces, India).
The term 'war-games' follows the standard for game classification. This term might deviate from the conception of the ancient Indians. These imaginative games belong to the Alquerque family (vide HJR Murray: 'A History of Board-Games other than Chess', 1952). I don't know to what extent they are still played today. The games differ in the board pattern and how many pieces are used, but pieces move in the same way. Each pattern creates special problems to the player.
Pieces move along lines on the board. They may move a single step, or they may leap over a single piece to capture it. A piece that just captured may make another capturing move. Captures are compulsory. The objective is to capture the opponent's men (all, or the majority). As in most checkers variants, look for opportunities to make favorable exchanges of captures (two for one and three for two). Waiting-moves are an important theme, too. Stalemate is a win.
The circular game boards of Pretwa and Gol-skuish allow great freedom of moves. Therefore it is not easy to realize a material advantage. The opponent's remaining stone(s) can always escape the clutch. In this type of game it's common practice to view the game as won by the player who has more pieces when it becomes apparent that no more pieces will be taken. So in these games I have set the condition for winning to five enemy stones in Gol-skuish and to three in Pretwa. In the other games one must reduce the enemy stones to zero in order to win. |
