Snake, rattle and roll

Imported from India, Snakes and Ladders has been stripped of its demigods, Heaven and other spiritual elements, until only the dice and an ability to count remain, finds Rob Crossan

- Rob Crossan

RISK might be an ideal board game for those who fantasise about gaining supreme political power (No risk, no reward', December 11/18, 2024) and Monopoly may be beneficial training for anyone wanting to acquire wealth and shed what remains of their morals. Snakes and Ladders, however, seems to have, on the surface at least, very little to teach us in terms of life skills, either malevolent or benign.

Yet it remains one of the UK's most popular board games-and, in some ways, it's not too difficult to see why.

There's no manipulation, no skill and no general knowledge required. There are not even any primal cognitive skills needed other than the ability to count and throw a die.

Snakes and Ladders arrived on our shores during the 19th century, when British officers based in India 'discovered' the game and brought editions of it back to Blighty. Since then, we've done a fairly comprehensive job of eliminating its core spiritual elements.

Absurd as it may sound to our ears, historians contend that Snakes and Ladders was originally designed to teach players about liberation from the transmutations of karma, with the winner being rewarded with moksha: emancipation from the endless cycle of death and rebirth.