Cast a handful of cowrie shells and race four pawns around the great ring and home to the centre, but watch for captures along the way.
Pachisi is a traditional Indian cross-and-circle race game. Each side has four pawns that travel a 52-cell perimeter ring and then turn up a private home column to the centre. Cast six cowrie shells each turn, choose a value from the cast, and move a pawn, the first player to bring all four pawns safely home wins.
Pachisi is the great cross-and-circle race game of India, played for centuries on an embroidered cloth board laid out like a plus sign, with cowrie shells thrown to determine movement. Its name comes from the Hindi for twenty-five, the highest throw.
By Mughal times it was played at court, and Akbar is said to have had a version laid out in the courtyards at Fatehpur Sikri using people as the pieces — a story repeated often enough that the marked paving is still pointed out to visitors. Pieces travel out around the cross and back to the centre, and landing on an opponent sends them home, so the game is a long journey repeatedly undone. Ludo and Parcheesi are both simplified commercial descendants.
Pachisi is a centuries-old cross-and-circle race game from India, the forerunner of many modern board-game chases. This is an original, free browser version with cowrie casts, castle safe-squares, captures, and an exact-centre finish, no download or sign-up.