Daramutu is a traditional mancala game from Sri Lanka. It was first described in 1909 by the British engineer Henry Parker in his book Ancient Ceylon (1909). Traditionally, the game is only played by women.
Mancala is one of the oldest known games to still be widely played today. Mancala is a generic name for a family of two-player turn-based strategy board games played with small stones, beans, or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board or other playing surface. The objective is usually to capture all or some set of the opponent's pieces. Versions of the game date back to the 7th century, and evidence suggests the game existed in ancient Egypt.
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea. The island is historically and culturally intertwined with the Indian subcontinent, but is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo.
Henry Parker was a British engineer in colonial Ceylon during the Victorian era. He was attached to the Irrigation Department from 1873 to 1904. During his work as an engineer he developed an admiration for the skills displayed by the ancient Sinhalese at the time of the construction of their reservoirs.
Rules
The game's board (termed olinda-puruwa) comprises 2 rows of 7 pits each. At game setup, four seeds are places in each pit. Seeds of Abrus precatorius are traditionally used. Each player controls one of the rows.
Abrus precatorius, commonly known commonly as jequirity bean or rosary pea, is a herbaceous flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae. It is a slender, perennial climber with long, pinnate-leafleted leaves that twines around trees, shrubs, and hedges.
At her turn, the player takes all the seeds in one of her pits and sows them. The first player to play may choose whether sowing occurs clockwise or counterclockwise; after that, all sowing will be done accordingly throughout the game. Sowing is called ihinawa.
If the last seed is sown in a pit that contains at least 3 seeds, relay-sowing applies. If the last seed falls in an empty pit, or in a pit with exactly one seed (called puta, "son") or in a pit with exactly two seeds (naga, "figlia"), any seeds in the opposite pit are captured. Note that the player can either capture seeds from her own or from the opponent's row, depending on whether her sowing ends in the opponent's or her own row.
When one of the players cannot move, the game is over. All remaining seeds are captured by the opponent, and the winner is the player who captured most seeds.
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Related Research Articles
Oware is an abstract strategy game among the Mancala family of board games played worldwide with slight variations as to the layout of the game, number of players and strategy of play. Its origin is uncertain but it is widely believed to be of Ashanti origin.
Omweso is the traditional mancala game of the Ugandan people. The game was supposedly introduced by the Bachwezi people of the ancient Bunyoro-kitara empire of Uganda. Nowadays the game is dominated by Ugandan villagers. It is a very hard and fast game said to keep one's mind high and ever excited, which can make it addictive. The equipment needed for the game is essentially the same as that of the Bao game. Omweso is strictly related to a wide family of mancalas found in eastern and southern Africa; these include Coro in the Lango region of Uganda, Aweet in Sudan, [] in Namibia, Kombe in Lamu (Kenya), Mongale in Mombasa (Kenya), Mongola in Congo, Igisoro in Rwanda, and Kiela in Angola.
Ba-awa is a mancala from Ghana. Although played in some of the same regions as Oware, it is simpler and in traditional societies is considered a game for women and children. Ba-awa is related to games j'erin and obridjie played in Nigeria. It is also similar to mancala game anywoli played at the Ethiopian-Sudanese border.
Bao is a traditional mancala board game played in most of East Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Malawi, as well as some areas of DR Congo and Burundi. It is most popular among the Swahili people of Tanzania and Kenya; the name itself "Bao" is the Swahili word for "board" or "board game". In Tanzania, and especially Zanzibar, a "bao master" is held in high respect. In Malawi, a close variant of the game is known as Bawo, which is the Yao equivalent of the Swahili name.
ǁHus is a traditional mancala played by Nama, Herero, Kwangari and other related ethnic groups from Namibia and neighbouring countries. It is related to the Omweso family of mancala games played in Eastern and Southern Africa. Although this is an abstract strategy game, consequences of individual moves are so hard to predict that it can be considered, to some extent, a game of chance.
Igisoro is a two-player game of the mancala family. It is a variant of the Omweso game of the Baganda people (Uganda), and it is played primarily in Burundi and Rwanda. Igisoro, like Omweso and other mancalas from Eastern Africa such as Bao, is played with a 4×8 board of pits and 64 seeds. A player's territory is the two rows of pits closest to them.
Andada is a traditional mancala game played by the Kunama people of western Eritrea. It closely resembles other mancalas from East Africa such as Enkeshui and Layli Goobalay.
Anywoli is a traditional mancala game played by the Anuak people of the Gambela province, in Ethiopia, as well as in the Akobo, Pochalla and Jokau regions of Sudan. The name of the game means "bringing to life". Anywoli has similarities to mancalas found in Nigeria and Ghana, such as Ba-awa and Obridjie.
Ayoayo is a traditional mancala played by the Yoruba people in Nigeria. It is very close to the Oware game that spread to the Americas with the atlantic slave trade. Among modern mancalas, which are most often derived from Warri, the Kalah is a notable one that has essentially the same rules as Ayoayo.
Hawalis is a traditional mancala game played in Oman as well as Zanzibar, where it is known as Bao la Kiarabu, with slightly different rules. It is closely related to African mancalas such as Bao, Njomba, Lela, Mulabalaba (Zambia), Muvalavala (Angola) and Tschuba.
En Gehé is a traditional mancala game played by the Loitha and Kisonga Maasai groups of northern Tanzania. The game was first described in 1904 by a German soldier, Moritz Merker, who was serving in the Kaiserlichen Schutztruppe in German East Africa. Merker later became the first ethnologist to study the Maasai culture.
Enkeshui is a traditional mancala game played by the Maasai of both Kenya and Tanzania. It is a rather complex mancala game, and bears some similarities to the Layli Goobalay mancala played in Somaliland.
Isolo is a traditional mancala game played by the Sukuma people in northern Tanzania. The rules of the game come in three variants, respectively for women, boys and men.
Katro is a traditional mancala game played by the Betsileo people in the Fianarantsoa Province of Madagascar. The game was first described by Alex de Voogt in 1998.
Kiothi is a traditional mancala game played by the Meru people in Kenya. The word "kiothi" simply means "to place". This mancala is closely related to the Enkeshui and the Giuthi mancalas, respectively played by the Maasai and the Kikuyu.
Lamlameta is a traditional mancala game played by the Konso people living in the Olanta area of central Ethiopia. It was first described in 1971 by British academic Richard Pankhurst. It is usually played by men. The name "Lamlaleta" means "in couples".
Layli Goobalay is a board game played in parts of Somalia. It is a variant of the classical count and capture game mancala, which is one of the oldest two-player strategy board games played throughout the world. Layli Goobalay means "to exercise with circles" in the Somali language.
Lukho is a traditional mancala game, played by the Bukusu people living by the Elgon mountain, in Kenya. Only older men can play it.
Mbothe is a traditional mancala game played by the Pokomo people that live along the Tana River, in Kenya. Pokomo do not traditionally build gameboards; they dig pits in the ground and use small stones as counters.
