Dayakattai or Dayaboss is a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

dice game Dice games are games that use or incorporate one or more dice as their sole or central component, usually as a random device. The following are games which largely, if not entirely, depend on dice: Collectible dice games Patterned after the su ...

played by 2 or 4 people (or multiples) by forming teams. It originated in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

(a southern state of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

) and is comparable to another dice game from the country called

Pachisi Pachisi ( , ) is a cross and circle board game that originated in Ancient India. It is described in the ancient text ''Mahabharata'' under the name of "Pasha". It is played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross. A player's pieces move aro ...

. Dayakattai takes many different forms.

Etymology

The word "Daya" is derived from the Tamil word தாயம் ("Thayam," meaning first stone).

Equipment

The game uses a pair of long square

cuboid In geometry, a cuboid is a hexahedron with quadrilateral faces, meaning it is a polyhedron with six Face (geometry), faces; it has eight Vertex (geometry), vertices and twelve Edge (geometry), edges. A ''rectangular cuboid'' (sometimes also calle ...

dice, called the Dayakattai. These dice also go by names such as Daayam and Daala. They are typically made of

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

and have dots punched onto the long faces (1, 2, 3, 0). Each player starts with twelve or six coins/chips at a 'home' in the center of the game board.

Gameplay

Dhaayam ��ாயம்is a traditional game of Tamil Nadu. Players take turns rolling the Dayakattai. When a player rolls a Dayam (0 on one die and 1 on another), they move one of their pieces one space out of the "home", rolls again and advances their piece by the number indicated by the dice. In order to move all the pieces out of the home, Daayam must be rolled for each one. Pieces advance first along the side of the player and then in a

clockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions or senses of rotation. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands relative to the observer: from the top to the right, then down and then to ...

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., if a player rolls 5, 12 and 2, they can move one piece by 12, move another by 5, and then move a third piece 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 from the opponent by landing on the same spot that they are in. A 'cut' piece is sent home. However, while in one of the safe zones (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. This game has 8 steps.

Long format

In the longer format of the game players start with 8 coins, of which 4 have to move around the board in pairs, i.e. 4 coins form 2 pairs. Paired coins move only when an even number is rolled by the player. The number of paces moved gets 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 completed, an outer lap must be completed before the player can move to the outer edge and win the game. 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 the pair can move only when even numbers are rolled, if a player has taken all his single coins to the center of the board, it is a daunting task to take the pairs back to the center. However, an advantage of paired coins is that a pair cannot be cut by a single coin, but the reverse is not true.

Significance

One more traditional Dayakattai is in use in some Indian villages; it is called "Marudees" or "Majith," which translates as "a vehicle to God". The rules are the same with the pieces ranging to 12 numbers each, the cross which comes for every 5 box counts is called a safe place. One team occupies the safe place (pazham zone), which can't be occupied by the other team until it is cleared. The pieces in this safe place cannot be cut, and only if a team cuts at least one of the other team's pieces can it enter the pazham zone. Its zone is usually in the shape of letter M. The first player to move all 12 coins to pazham is the winner. The

Mahābhārata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succe ...

, the famous Indian epic states that the

Kauravas ''Kaurava'' is a Sanskrit term which refers to descendants of Kuru, a legendary king of India who is the ancestor of many of the characters of the epic ''Mahabharata''. Usually, the term is used for the 100 sons of King Dhritarashtra and his ...

invited the

Pandavas The Pandavas (Sanskrit: पाण्डव, aɳɖɐʋᵊ IAST: Pāṇḍava) is a group name referring to the five legendary brothers, Yudhishtira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva, who are central figures of the Hindu epic ''Mahabhara ...

to gamble for their kingdom over this game.

References