The Buddhist games list is a list of
games that
Gautama Buddha is reputed to have said that he would not play and that his disciples should likewise not play, because he believed them to be a 'cause for negligence'.[1] This list dates from the 6th or 5th
century BC and is the earliest known
list of games.[2]
There is some debate about the translation of some of the games mentioned, and the list given here is based on the translation by
T. W. Rhys Davids of the Brahmajāla Sutta and is in the same order given in the original.[3] The list is duplicated in a number of other early Buddhist texts, including the Vinaya Pitaka.[2][4]
Games on boards with 8 or 10 rows. This is thought to refer to ashtapada and dasapada respectively, but later
Sinhala commentaries refer to these boards also being used with games involving
dice.[2]
The same games played on imaginary boards. Akasam astapadam was an ashtapada variant played with no board, literally "astapadam played in the sky". A correspondent in the American Chess Bulletin identifies this as likely the earliest literary mention of a
blindfold chess variant.[5]
Games of marking diagrams on the floor such that the player can only walk on certain places. This is described in the Vinaya Pitaka as "having drawn a circle with various lines on the ground, there they play avoiding the line to be avoided". Rhys Davids suggests that it may refer to parihāra-patham, a form of
hop-scotch.
Games where players either remove pieces from a pile or add pieces to it, with the loser being the one who causes the heap to shake (similar to the modern game
pick-up sticks).
Games of throwing dice.
"Dipping the hand with the fingers stretched out in
lac, or red dye, or flour-water, and striking the wet hand on the ground or on a wall, calling out 'What shall it be?' and showing the form required—elephants, horses, &c."
Although the modern game of
chess had not been invented at the time the list was made, earlier chess-like games such as chaturaji may have existed.
H. J. R. Murray refers to Rhys Davids' 1899 translation, noting that the 8×8 board game is most likely ashtapada while the 10×10 game is dasapada. He states that both are
race games.[6]
Occurrences in the Pali Canon
The complete list is repeated several times in the
Digha Nikaya as part of a passage called 'The Intermediate Section on Moral Discipline' that details ways in which the Buddha and his followers differ in their practices from
brahmins and other ascetics.
The full list also occurs twice in the
Vinaya Pitaka, once in the
Suttavibhanga as part of the criteria for a rule entailing suspension, and once in the
Cullavaga as part of a technical discussion regarding the procedure for banishing monks from an area.[4][7]