INDIA, RAJASTHAN, 19TH CENTURY

Still popular today as the child's game, "Chutes and Ladders," gyan bazi was often played during the Paryusana festival and was popular amongst Jain nuns who used it as a didactic pastime to impart the notion of karma. Women of the Rajasthani courts also played the game for recreation and versions were adapted for Hindus and Muslims. Played with dice, the board represents the progress of life with certain squares denoting good deeds, and others bad deeds, along with the consequences of both actions. Starting in the lower squares representing hell, players can advance to the next square by answering questions correctly, sometimes aided by a ladder to skip squares. The snakes cause the players to lose ground where they must start again. To win players must reach the semi-circle at top, representing moksha. See J. van Alphen, Steps to Liberation, 2000, p. 126 and S. Andhare in The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, 1994.