Vingt-et-un dés pour le jeu de chaupar ou d'échecs

A set of 21 carved bone dices, India, 15-19th century Rectangular bone, pierced on the edge and decorated with ocelli. L.: 4 to 4.9 cm. According to A.Contadini's study, these long dice are a direct evolution of the astragalus, a Roman bone game. In the Arab world, this type of rectangular die may have been used for four-handed chess and nard, and predates the cubic die. The rectangular die was active in India from the 11th to the 19th century, where it was known as pasa, and was also used in racing games such as pachisi, chausar and chaupur, played on a four-sided board. The publication of R. de Wilde's collection seems to point to an Indian context for the present set. According to the Shiv Purana, the dice game dates back to Hindu mythology, when the sinister yogi Narada interrupted the embrace of the god Shiva and his beloved Parvati, claiming that there is something more delicious than love, namely the game of dice. Intrigued by her offer, the divine couple begin to play. Everyone cheats as much as possible, but no matter how long the game lasts, the result is always the same: Shiva loses and Parvati wins. The game unfolds in a metaphorical tale of confrontation, division, illusion and oneness. The golden age of chaupar corresponds to the great Mughal period of the 16th-18th centuries. Visiting Fatepur Sikri in the 19th century, Louis Rousselet recounts how Emperor Akbar II organized tournaments that could last three months. Traces of giant plateaus can still be seen, not only in Fatepur Sikri, but also in Agra and Allahabad. Far beyond the borders of India, chaupar was played throughout Southeast Asia and as far away as Syria. Provenance : Public sale, France, Collection of M. de Wilde (1929-2019). Bibliography: Published in R. de Wilde, Poids, Balances et Pions des Civilisations Anciennes, 2017, p. 219, reproduced p. 280 and 282 pp. 248 Oeuvres comparables / Similar works : Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 1962.1.52, Ashmolean Museum, acc.no. EA 1974.64 and acc. no. X3322, excavated at Fustat, Egypt, 9th-11th century, published in A. Contadini, fig. 51, figs. 36 and 37, British Museum, inv. no.1027, excavated at Mansura, India, 10th century (?), published in A. Contadini, fig. 50. A set of 21 carved bone dices, India, 15-19th century