The History of Snakes & Ladders

Snakes and Ladders has forever been one of India’s favourite ways of spending quality family time. With our evening snacks by our side, we sit cross-legged on the bed and engage in a fierce, nasty competition through the board game. Never once do we ask the question, “where did the game even originate from?”


The game was designed in the thirteenth-century AD by Saint Gyandev, although some trace it back to the second-century AD. Endowed with the majestic name Mokshapata (Sanskrit for path to salvation), the game sought to teach a key lesson on karma to society. It consisted of 72 boxes, and each box was symbolic of virtues and vices—the snakes lingered around vices and ladders around virtues. The intention was to educate people on how associating oneself with vices like ego, anger and jealousy would pull them down, whereas practicing virtues would take them a step further in attaining Moksha (Sanskrit for the ultimate purpose of life) by reaching Vaikunth (Hindu Lord Vishnu’s abode). 


Over time, the game acquired other adaptations to propagate the teachings of Jainism and Buddhism across the Indian subcontinent.


A Jain snakes & ladders (called Gyan Chaupar) dating back to the thirteenth-century
Source: National Museum, New Delhi

Upon reaching England in the year 1892, the game’s Hindu philosophy angle was replaced by Victorian values. Under the influence of Christianity, the game began to be covered in depictions of angels, other mystic creatures, and lush gardens. Snakes representing sins outnumbered the ladders representing good deeds, showing how following the path of god was more arduous than leading a life of sin and treachery. 


Kismet, c. 1895. A version of the game designed in England
Source: Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The game was finally commercialised by Milton Bradley and introduced in the US as Chutes and Ladders in 1943. It was now stripped off any religious or moral significance and was simply played for leisure. Subsequently, its popularity spiked massively, which led to the creation of the game we know and love today. 


The game sold by Bradley in the 1920s
Source: Wikipedia Commons

A word of unsolicited advice for you: whenever you’re furiously slamming your board once you land on the diabolical 97 surrounded by snakes, wondering how rigged the game could be to make you lose so bad, think of the values that inspired the creation of this game, centuries before you were born. It might help you cut down on a few of your vices.

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