Traditional Indian Board Games
Five Games.
Thousands of Years.
Strategy games from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bengal and beyond — played across generations, now playable online with Elo rankings.
Ali Guli Mane
“14 cups. 70 seeds. A perfect duel of capture and counting.”
One of the oldest strategy games in South India — Ali Guli Mane is a mancala game where you race to capture more seeds than your opponent. Deceptively simple, endlessly deep.
2 Players
Aadu Huli
“3 tigers. 15 goats. One board that separates hunters from the strategic.”
An asymmetric masterpiece played for over a thousand years across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. As tigers, you capture. As goats, you surround. Two completely different games in one.
Chowka Bara
“Four cowrie shells decide your fate. How you spend that fate is all skill.”
The ancient race game of India — toss four cowrie shells, earn your moves, and race your kaayis home. Strike your rivals back to start. The family battleground of South India for centuries.
Navakankari
“Solved by computers in 1993. Still humbling humans today.”
Form lines of three, remove your opponent's pieces, and trap them until they cannot move. Found carved into temple steps at Hampi and Roman rooftops alike — this is a truly ancient duel.
Sholo Gutti
“Simple rules. A 5×5 grid. Devastating consequences.”
Two players, sixteen pieces each, one goal — trap your opponent until they run out of moves. Sholo Gutti rewards patience and punishes aggression. Easy to start, hard to master.
Seete Aata
“14 pits. 56 seeds. A perfect cycle of 98 moves.”
Seetha's meditative game from Lanka's Ashokavana. A single player runs seeds through a 2×7 board for 98 moves until the pattern restores exactly. No opponent. No end. Just rhythm.
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