FILE #005 • HISTORICAL ARCHIVE
The exact origins of Pachisi are obscured by time and the perishability of cloth boards. Unlike stone game boards from Egypt or Mesopotamia, early Indian games were played on embroidered fabrics that have long since disintegrated. However, philological evidence suggests ancestors of Pachisi existed in the Indian subcontinent by at least the 4th century AD.
Pachisi achieved its apotheosis during the Mughal Empire. Emperor Akbar the Great (r. 1556–1605) was obsessed with the game. At his palace in Fatehpur Sikri, he commissioned a gigantic stone board in the courtyard. The game pieces were sixteen women from the imperial harem, dressed in silks of red, yellow, green, and black. The Emperor would sit on a central dais, rolling cowries while courtiers directed the women across the stone grid.
From royal courts, Pachisi filtered down to merchant classes and common soldiers. The portable cloth board made it ideal for travelers. By the 19th century, it was a staple of Indian social life, played in homes, bazaars, and military camps throughout the subcontinent.
British colonizers encountered Pachisi during the Raj and simplified it into Ludo (patented 1896), stripping away the cowrie shells, Grace mechanics, and strategic blocking to create a children's game. The original Pachisi, however, remains a game of profound strategic depth.