Description

This traditional game of ancient India is described by game historian R.C. Bell as a "square board race game." The game is played on a 5x5 grid which would have been marked out on the ground. The center space is the castle and the middle squares on each side of the board are serve as a player's palace. Each player uses four small sticks as their pieces. Four tamarind seeds marked with three white sides and three dark sides to function as dice.

The pieces start off the board. A "1" must be rolled to move a piece onto the board. The pieces first travel counterclockwise around the outside of the board and then travel through the inner nine squares in a clockwise spiral pattern until they reach the castle square at the center of the board. Once all four of a player's pieces have reached the central castle square, the player begins trying to bear them off the board. For each "1" rolled a player may remove one piece from the castle. The first player to remove all four pieces wins the game.

When a player moves onto a square containing the piece or pieces of an opposing player, the opponent's pieces are removed from the board and must start the journey again. However, this rule does not apply to the palace and castle spaces, which are safe havens. In addition, under certain circumstances a player may pair together two pieces as a "twin" which permits them to move together and which may only be sent off the board by another "twin" piece.

A more elaborate form of the game, known as The King's Thayaam, is played on a board double the size and uses eight tamarind seeds as dice instead of four.

This game is similar to the Indian games Saturankam and Ashta-Kashte.