Games of Diplomacy

A 7th-century Sanskrit biography of the Indian emperor Harshavardhana written by his court poet Banabhatta contains the first literary mention of the game of chess. In it we read that the Indian emperor sent a gift to the Sassanian King Khosrow I. The gift was a game that contained pieces that have been translated in different ways: "royal figures of sculptors" or "fighting terracotta-warriors" or even "When this king [Har·a] reigns, the fight among kings is confined to terracotta statuettes."

The strong assertion is that this was a chess game. (More detail available here; just search for "chess.")

The story, translated, explains that the king of India sent it to Khosrow with a challenge, or taunt:

As your name is the King of Kings, all your emperorship over us connotes that your wise men should be wiser than ours. Either you send us an explanation of this game of chess or send revenue and tribute to us.

Khosrow tossed the challenge to his vizier, Bozorgmehr, who had ben an advisor and military commander under Khosrow's father. It took three days, but Bozorgmehr figured out the arrangement and rules of the game of chess. (The illustration shows Bozorgmehr challenging the Indian envoy to a game.)

Khosrow decided that turnabout was fair play, so he had Bozorgmehr design a board game to send to India. The game was called Nard, and was designed to represent Zoroastrian philosophy:

• 30 Checkers: Represent the 30 days of a month.
• 24 Points (Squares): Represent the 24 hours of a day.
• 4 Sections of the Board: Represent the 4 seasons of the year.
• Two Colors (Black and White): Symbolize night and day.
• The Dice: Represent the stars of fate, fortune, and life's unpredictability

Khosrow sent it to the Indian emperor with the same challenge. They failed to decipher the playing of the game, and therefore were obliged to pay tribute to Persia.

And that (we are told) is how these two wildly popular games came to be. Tomorrow we will return to more serious matters, perhaps fables.