Pachisi

Pachisi is a board game that originated in ancient India; it is described as the national game of India. It is played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross. A player's pieces move around the board based upon a throw of six or seven cowrie shells (a sea snail), with the number of shells landing aperture upwards indicating the number of places to move. The name of the game comes from the Hindi word pachis, meaning twenty-five, the largest score that can be thrown with the cowrie shells. Thus the game is also known by the name Twenty-five. It is a descendant of the game of Ashte kashte. The westernized version of the game is spelled Parcheesi. Pachisi is a Cross and circle game. Games of this type include Ludo, "Pancha Keliya" from Sri Lanka, Nyout from Korea, and "Edris To Jin" from Syria. In the Aztec ruins of Mexico vestiges of a similar game have been found called Patolli. There are no standard rules and there are many variations on how to play Pachisi. Pachisi is a game... full article at wikipedia