A World of Games in a Universe at Play: Exploring the Ludic Legacy of South Asia

Chaired by Kenneth G. Zysk, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen.

South Asia's history of games reaches back to the Indus Valley Civilization in the 3rd millennium BCE. This talk tours that history, from chess and chaupar to backgammon, and what these games reveal about ritual and everyday life across the centuries.

About the speaker: Jacob Schmidt-Madsen studies the history of South Asian games, with a focus on how games intersect with ritual and divination, and has written extensively on chaupar (ludo) and gyan chaupar (snakes and ladders).