Chaturanga

Chaturanga (Sanskrit: चतुरङ्ग; caturaṅga), catur, is an ancient Indian strategy game which is the common ancestor of the board games chess, shogi, makruk, xiangqi and janggi.

Chaturanga developed in the Gupta Empire, India around the 6th century AD. In the 7th century, it was adopted as shatranj in Sassanid Persia, which in turn was the form of chess brought to late-medieval Europe.

The exact rules of chaturanga are unknown. Chess historians suppose that the game had similar rules to those of its successor shatranj. In particular, there is uncertainty as to the moves of the Gaja (elephant), the precursor of the modern chess bishop.

History

Sanskrit caturaṅga is a bahuvrihi compound, meaning "having four limbs or parts" and in epic poetry often means "army". The name comes from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata, referring to four divisions of an army, namely elephants, chariots, cavalry and infantry. An ancient battle formation, Akshauhini, is like the setup of chaturanga.

Chaturanga (novel)

Chaturanga is a novel by Rabindranath Tagore, widely considered a landmark in Bengali literature. The novel was published in 1916. The story of the novel follows the journey of a young man named Sreebilas (the narrator), his meeting with his best friend, philosopher and guide Sachis, the story of Damini a widow and Jyathamoshai, an idealist person.

The novel consists of four chapters, each named for these main characters of the novel. Thus named Chaturanga, which in Sanskrit means "four parts", a "quartet".

References

Chaturanga (film)

Chaturanga (Bengali: চতুরঙ্গ "Four Chapters") is a 2008 Bengali film. Directed by Suman Mukherjee, the movie featured Rituparna Sengupta, Dhritiman Chaterji, Subrata Dutta, Joy Sengupta and Kabir Suman.

Plot

Based on the novel by author Rabindranath Tagore, Chaturanga is about a love caught between conflicting worlds of ideas. Set in Colonial Bengal at the turn of the twentieth century, the film weaves a rich tapestry of crisscrossing desires and moralities.The lead protagonist Sachish fleets from radical positivism to religious mysticism in his quest for life's meaning. However, his search ultimately yields nothing but crushing disillusionment. This is because he cannot square his abstract ideals with the powerful presences of two women in his life. One of them is Damini, a young Hindu widow, and the other is Nanibala, the abandoned mistress of Sachish's own brother.Sachish tries to convince himself that Nanibala is simply a helpless woman who needs to be 'rescued' by him. Similarly, during his later religious phase, he pretends that the widow Damini is merely an enticement of Nature that must be avoided at all costs for spiritual salvation. Chaturanga thus becomes, after a point, a psychodrama of unbelievable cruelty. Nanibala becomes a victim of it because as a 'fallen woman' she can only be 'saved', but her humanity cannot be recognized. Damini is first given away by her dying husband, along with all her property, to a religious guru. She then falls in love with Sachish who can accept her only without her sexuality.