In crossed boxes, killing is not possible. The killed token returns to its starting home square and has to go round all over again. If a player's token lands on a square occupied by opponent's token, then the opponent's token is 'killed' and the player gets an extra turn to play. The tokens travel anti-clockwise in outer squares, clockwise in inner squares and finally lands up in central square (home), with a throw of Ashta or Chamma. Since each cowrie carry 2 points, 2 tokens for Chamma and 4 tokens for Ashta are entered on the board. The tokens enter the board only after a Chamma or Ashta is thrown. Each player has a fixed path to move pawns, which is in an anti-clockwise direction.Įach player's piece must completely traverse the outer squares before moving into the inner squares. Casting 4 or 8 gives the player an additional turn, which can continue until that player rolls a number other than 4 or 8 (namely 1, 2, or 3).ĭepending on the number rolled, the player can move one of their pawns that many number of squares on the board. Therefore, the possible values are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8. However, if every shell shows a value of 0, then the value of the roll is 4 and if all of them shows a value of 1, then the value of the roll is 8.

The mouth of the shell landing upwards has a value of 1 and downwards has a value of 0. The game is controlled by throwing four Kowri shells and counting how many are 'as it is' versus those that land 'inverted': if all four shells land inverted it is called 'chamma' and if all land as it is then it is called an 'ashta'.Įach player takes a turn to roll the Kowri shells. Similar to Ludo, it is a fascinating game of chance and skill.įour players each have four pawns, starting at different positions at the four crossed squares at the outermost ring. The game of Ashta Chamma/ Chowka Bhara is known by many names and is one of the oldest board games extant, still being played in certain parts of India.

Ashta chamma game app