[world-vedic] Did you know chess originated in India

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This article has been taken from

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2178/

 

Chess originated in India:

 

Sir William Jones wrote that chess had been

known to Indians in

antiquity as Caturanga, meaning the four wings

of the army, which are

described in the Amarakosa as elephants,

horses, chariots, and

infantry. One of the early Sanskrit texts, the

Bhavishya Purana,

contains a tale of a prince who lost all his

possessions in a game of

chess played with dice. Chess must indeed go

deep into early Indian

history, because it was associated with

astronomical symbolism

thoughout its growth.

According to H.J.R. Murray, who published his

monumental study A

History of Chess in 1913, chess descended from

an earlier Indian game

called Astapada, played on a board containing

8 x 8 cells.

Chaturnaga was taken to Persia in the sixth

century during the reign of

Anushirvan (531-579) where it came to be known as Chatrang, whcih

according to the Arabic phonetic

system became Shatranj.

The earliest reference to chess in Persia is found in the

Karnamak-i-Artakh Shatr-i-Papakan,

written about 600. In the tenth century, the poet Firdusi related a

traditional story in his epic poem,

Shahnama of how chess came to Persia through an envoy of the King of

Hind (India).