Dayakattai is an Indian dice game played by two to four people. It is very similar to Parchesi in terms of gameplay. Typically all players start with six coins/chips at a 'home' in the center of the board. They each take turns rolling the Dayakattai, a pair of dice that are shaped like long cuboids. They are typically made of brass, and have dots punched onto the long faces (1, 2, 3, 0). When a player rolls a Daayam (0 on one die, 1 on another), they get to move one of their pieces one space out of their home, and roll again and they advance their piece by the number inicated by the dice. For all the pieces to move out of the home, Daayam has to be rolled out till all pieces are out. Pieces advance along the board by initially moving down their owner's leg of the board, and then in a clockwise direction. When a player rolls a one, five, six, or twelve (two 0s), they get to roll again. The numbers rolled can be distributed among the player's pieces (e.g. A player rolls 5, 12, 2. They can move one piece by twelve, move another by 5, and then move one more by 2. Alternately, the player could elect to have the three numbers shared by only two pieces or even move only one piece by the total number rolled.). Pieces can 'cut' other pieces by landing on the same spot that they are in. A 'cut' piece is sent all the way back to the home. However, while on one of the safe zones on the board (marked by an X), a piece cannot be cut. After completing one lap, a piece starts to move up the outer edge of the right side of its owner's leg of the game board. It stays on the corners instead of the spaces. The piece then needs to move the exact number of spaces to get to the center of the board. While at the corner of the home, a piece can be cut by another piece getting to the corner of its home. Players win by getting all of their pieces to the center of the board. For clarification as to the shape of the board, see the link below.
There is yet another format for this, the above mentioned is like a T20 cricket match. There is also a longer format in this, like a 50 over match. The rules are a bit different, players start with 8 coins, out of which 4 coins have to move around the board in pairs, i.e. 4 coins form 2 pairs. They can move this paired coins only when an even number is rolled by the player and the no. of paces moved get halved(e.g. if a player rolls 2 or 4 or 6 or 12, the paired coins can move only 1 or 2 or 3 or 6 paces).Once the inner lap is continued, there is also an outer lap which has to be completed before the player can take it to the outer edge and win the game by bringing it to the center of the board. One reason why this format takes a long time apart from the fact that it has two laps, is due to the "paired coins". Since it can move only when even numbers are rolled, if a player has taken all his single coins to the center of the board, its a daunting task to take the pairs back to the center. However, an advantage of the paired coins is that it cannot be cut by a single coin but the vice versa is not true. Though, this format is longer there is ample excitement in this too, in fact, maybe a bit more than the shorter one.
This die also goes by other names such as Daayam and Daala.
There is one more traditional Dayakattai which due to the change that the world went through got erased from our culture. But this form is still in use in lots of villages, and they call this as the Vaaganam or Vimaanam which translates as a vehicle to GOD,
The Rules are still the same, with the pieces range to 12 nos each, and the cross which comes for every 5 box counts is called safe place, which one team occupies and cant be occupied by the other team, till it is cleared, the pieces in this safe place cannot be cut, and only if a team cuts the other team's at least one piece, it can enter the pazham zone, which is usually in the shape of M.
First to reach all 12 coins to pazham is the winner, and is the most traditional game of all.... Its also said that in the famous Indian epic, the Mahābhārata, the Kauravas invited the Pandavas to gamble for their kingdom over this game. and this is the board which they used. Clear Image Not Available
