Cowry Shell Scores | |
= 1 | |
= 2 | |
= 3 | |
= 4 | |
= 8 |
Drag the circular counters onto the game board to play the game.
As this is a very old game there are many slight variations to the rules so here is the Transum version of the rules:
This photograph was taken in August 1996 at a hill temple near Khejarala, Rajesthan, India. Carved into the rock is the board for a game. It is a five by five grid of squares, five of the squares have crosses in them.
The game is called Chowka Bhara and is one of the oldest board games still being played in certain parts of India. There are references of this game in some ancient Indian epics like the Mahabharata.
This game has been traditionally played on a silk cloth-lined board and with 4 cowry shells used as dice.
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Aimee, Malvern St James Girls School
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
"It is giant noughts and crosses."
Sarita Hiremath, Reading, UK
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
"It is played like LUDO. 2 - 4 players. The squares with crosses in them are the 'home' where each player starts and try to get all 4 counters into the middle square by going all the way around."
Koudi, Tulika Samal
Thursday, December 18, 2014
"This is called as "Koudi" in hindi. and its one of the most played games in remote areas ."
Joe, England
Friday, January 15, 2016
"I think you have to make the corners and center of a square using crosses."