The History behind Snakes and Ladders

The game was developed in India with a different end goal

You have played ‘Snakes and Ladders’ right...we all have..it’s a good time pass game. We used to get it in the form of 2 games in 1 - Ludo on one end and snakes and ladders on the other.

Coming back to the game, I discovered something very fascinating...

Here it is..

The game was actually developed in the 13th century by an Indian poet and saint called Gyandev….with an idea to impart moral education to the children. 

The ladders which took you up stood for good virtues like generosity, knowledge, asceticism and so on while the mouths of snakes stood for our vices such arrogance, vulgarity, theft, lust and so on. 

The game was actually known as Moksha Padam wherein the 100th square represented nirvana or Moksha. 

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It was the British who later changed the name and the underlying idea behind the game and called it Snakes and Ladders.

In-fact the game was introduced in 1943 in the US too under the name Chutes and Ladders. 

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This game is also available here on Amazon in case someone wants to buy it or gift it...

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0BBMVQPGV?ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_4288Z1QR3KY9SM0DAEBX&language=en-IN

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