HISTORICAL CHESS
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Chess Invented In India? 
We've Heard This Tune Before...

March 16, 2007
By Goddesschess Staff 

Between March 9 -12, 2007, a news story was picked up by several chess bloggers on the internet. 
Here is the story as it was picked up by two different newspapers, half a world apart:

The Australian/Science and Nature  Keeping the Nation Informed  This story is from The Times  Chess Came From India, Experts Claim  Jeremy Page in Delhi  March 12, 2007  The riddle of the origins of chess has baffled enthusiasts and historians for decades, with countries from China to Ireland claiming to have invented the game. Now a research team claims to have moved a step closer to proving that chess originated around the northern Indian city of Kanauj in the 5th century. The team of four believes that terracotta figures found in the area are not toys, as long assumed by Indian experts, but pieces used in a strategic board game called chaturanga. Chaturanga is generally considered to be the predecessor of chess, which evolved into its current form when transferred to Europe in the 15th century, but its precise origins remain a mystery. Renate Syed, an Indologist from Munich University, who was on the team, has already claimed to have found textual proof that an Indian king transferred chaturanga to Persia in the 6th century. That thesis caused some consternation in Iran, where many historians argue that the Persians invented the game, which they called chatrang, and transferred it to India. It also ruffled feathers in China, where many believe that chess originated from a board game called xiangqi, which is mentioned in documents from the Warring States Period (403-221BC). But Dr Syed hopes that the terracotta warriors, horses, chariots and elephants found around Kanauj, in modern-day Uttar Pradesh, will constitute the first physical evidence to back up her theory. She and her colleagues visited Kanauj this month and examined and photographed about 40 of the thousands of figures lying in museum vaults. "They are designed to fit the hand - not too big, not too round, not too fat - and they are almost unbreakable and have heavy bases so you could move them easily," Dr Syed told The Times. "I am quite sure about the origin of chess - the king, the place, the time - but still careful about identifying the terracottas as gaming pieces. But the hints are tremendous and promising." The other members of the team were Manfred Eder, a chess historian; Leander Feiler, a chess enthusiast from Germany; and Robert Dinsmore, a chess collector from California. It was funded by a charitable trust, headed by Mr Eder, which was set up ten years ago to explore the origins of chess. Dr Syed said that chaturanga was probably invented around 450AD in northern India, shortly before Kanauj became the capital of the Maukhari kingdom, the dominant force in the region. King Sharvavarman, who ruled there from 560 to 585, then gave the game to his contemporary Persian ruler, Khusrau Anushirvan, in lieu of saltpetre, a type of gunpowder. The Indian poet Bana mentions in one of his works that chaturanga was played in Kanauj around 630, using a board of 64 squares called the ashtapada. The exact rules are still unclear, but its name means "having four parts" and is thought to reflect the divisions of ancient Indian armies: infantry (pawns), elephants (rooks), cavalry (knights) and chariots (bishops). Other countries that claim to have invented chess include Egypt, Greece, Italy and Russia. COMMENTARY Is this a chess piece?  From Dr. Louis Cazaux's website, identified as:  Elephant, around Kanauj. H: 4.6 cm 4th c. AD  4.6 cm is about 1.8 inches. We've heard this tune before - games historian H. J. R. Murray wrote about it in A History of Chess, published by the Oxford University Press in 1913.(1)  Murray asserted that chess was invented in "northern India."  For the next forty years or so, most everyone more or less fell in line with Murray's dogma and said yes, chess was invented in northern India.  But this is not necessarily true - certainly it has not been conclusively proven, either by Murray or by any of his supporters since A History of Chess was first published.  There were always dissenting voices, back then and more so today, when there is more evidence than ever before to support divergent hypotheses about the origins of chess. Aside from the misleading headlines on the cited articles, implying that chess originated in India (specifically, in Uttar Pradesh precinct), the articles raise several questions - here are a few of them:  This is the Butrint piece discovered in 2002. Some experts say "it's not chess" - or, at least, not proven. H: approx. 1.5 inches. First: Establishing that artifacts found in Kannauj and environs are the oldest chess pieces does not likewise establish that the game was invented in Kannauj or, indeed, anywhere near Kannauj. It simply means that - if satisfactorily established by scientific dating techniques, the history of the dig, or via other methods - the pieces would be the oldest known chess pieces. Second: Establishing the antiquity of any one or more Kannauj-area artifacts does not necessarily mean they were used in playing chess. Indeed, one of the concerns expressed by historians and games scholars when the Butrint artifact was discovered in 2002 was that it was a found in isolation - that is, it was a single piece  and, thus, could not be presumed to be a chess piece in the absence of other supporting evidence (such as more pieces found in close proximity, or a chessboard, for instance). Were two or more of the artifacts found together? Finding twenty artifacts in twenty different areas does not a chess set make. In the absence of detailed knowledge or readily accessible information about the excavation record(s) and the artifacts under examination by the Eder team, this remains an open question.(2) Third: Asserting that chess was invented merely as a didactic for teaching skills of war totally ignores what historians and board games scholars generally accept as the origin of board games - that is, their adaptation from methods used for divination and associated magical practices. These strongly suggest sacred components derived from apotropaic tendencies that carried idealized states of defense, attack, active or and "at ease" positions relative to magico-religious beliefs about demonic incursions and ritual methods used to deflect or marshal such attacks. In the absence of such application, how does chaturanga serve any pragmatic purpose with regard to instructing upon either uncertain terrain or tactical improvisations necessary for success in actual battlefield encounters? Does not the rigidity of these games more logically imply derivation from ritual performances or other ceremonial prerogatives often thought to be efficacious forms of sympathetic magic?  We applaud Mr. Eder's team's efforts to uncover a part of the jig-saw puzzle that is the origins of chess. They are unabashedly pursuing their goal and it is hoped that their findings will be published and publicized in a timely manner and made readily available to everyone and anyone who has an interest in the subject.  Perhaps the charitable trust that is funding this research could make the information freely available online at a state-of-the-art interactive website.   Footnotes: (1)  H. J. R. Murray, A History of Chess, Oxford University Press, 1913; Benjamin Press Edition, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1985.  ISBN 0-936317-01-9. (2)  An internet search revealed that Dr. Syed published a short book in January, 2001, in German:  Kanauj, Die Maukharis Und Das Caturanga: Der Ursprung Des Schachspiels Und Sein Weg Von Indien Nach Persien. This line of research by Syed and Eder dates back several years and various papers have been published.  See Google results at Amazon (Germany) (from a search for the ISBN 3934474098).    Miscellany: Here is a different text version of the article as reported by The Times of India:   The Times of India  (Powered by IndiaTimes)  Cities: Lucknow 12 Mar, 2007  Origin of chess is UP  Akhilesh Kumar Singh  [9 Mar, 2007 0143 hrs IST Times News Newtork] LUCKNOW: It's like a Taj-like glory for Uttar Pradesh. A group of German Indologists has claimed to have resolved the controversy over the origin of chess in favour of Kannauj, a township about 75 km from Kanpur in the state. Different countries, at some point in time, have been associated with the game's invention including India, China, Persia (Iran), Egypt, Assyria, Arabia, Greece, Ireland and Uzbekistan. Many countries claim to have invented chess in some incipient form. But the Indologists' group has almost come to the conclusion that chess originated in Kannauj when it was the capital of Maukhari kingdom in the 6th century. The Maukhari ruler Sharva Varman had gifted the game of 'chaturanga' to his contemporary Persian ruler Khushrau-II in lieu of saltpetre (a variety of gunpowder). "According to the research done by us so far, we have reached the conclusion that 'chaturanga' was the initial form of chess," German researcher Manfred A J Eder told TOI. Eder heads the group which in the past one week visited Allahabad, Varanasi, Kannauj, Kanpur and Lucknow, tracing the origin of chess. Other members of the group are - chairman of Sacrmonte Institute for Public Policy Leander A Feiler, Munich University professor Habil Sayed Ranate and Robert S Dinsmore.  A recent book 'Kannauj, The Maukhari And Chaturanga - The origin of chess and its way from India to Persia,' authored by Ranate, laid the foundation for further research. The Maukhari rulers used to play 'chaturanga' with 16 cabinet terracotta before venturing into military campaigns, said Eder. Even Banbhatta in his 'Harshcharita' had mentioned a game called 'ashtapada' similar to chess, he added. Historical accounts say during the later Gupta period there was an Indian army school where cadets were taught about warfare through terracotta pieces on 'ashtapada', which was again the game of chess in its primitive stage, said Eder.