[Advaita-l] The 'Snake-and-ladder' game - The Spiritual path

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 26 Jul 2018, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l wrote:

> Copied and pasted from FB page of Ajay Khemka
> <https://www.facebook.com/ajay.khemka.75?fref=mentions>
>
>The British (intentionally to break our rich culture & education
> system) later named it Snakes and Ladders instead of the original Moksha
> Patam.


When I was growing up in England we went on a school trip to the Museum of 
Childhood (part of the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London.  They had an 
exhibition of childrens games through the ages and it was there I first 
learned about the Indian origins of Snakes and Ladders.  The early 
victorian versions clearly acknowledged the games Indian origin.  (I 
remember one was subtitled "The Hindoo Game of Virtue and Vice.") They 
were decorated in Indian motifs (albeit stereotypical ones such as 
elephants and snake charmers.) Yes they altered it to fit Christian 
morality but the idea that it was some sinister plot is pure paranoia. 
Such overwrought reactions are actually counter-productive because then no 
one will take the real cases of cultural appropriation  seriously.

Unfortunately, they do not seem to have made images from their collection 
available on the net but this link:

https://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/snakes-and-ladders/

gives a short introduction.  As you can see the Hindu origins are not at 
all obscured.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>