1902.] H. G. Raverty —The Invention of Chess and Backgammon. 47 
The Invention of Chess and Backgammon.—By Major H. G. Raverty, 
[Received 2nd April, 1902. Read in March, 1902.] 
There appears to be much uncertainty regarding the origin of the 
game of chess. One who has written on the subject asserts, that 
“ The date of its inception no one has discovered, and the question 
remains to this day a vexed one. Periodically something turns up to 
bury all former suppositions in the matter, and the day of its birth is 
put back a few thousand years.” 
A German Professor however is said to have “ discovered from the 
last excavations on the pyramids of Sakkara, a wall painting in which 
an Egyptian king, Teta, is represented playing chess with a high 
official.” This monarch is stated to have reigned about 3,700 B.C.; 
while another Professor corrects this chronology, and puts it back 
some six centuries to 3,300 B.C.; so that, according to this last surmise, 
the game of chess is very old indeed, and must have been known in 
the once mysterious land of Mizraim only about 5,205 years ago. But 
all this is absurd. 
The game of chess is mentioned in Sanskrit literature, and may be 
found in some stanzas occurring in the writings of two Kash-miri 
authors, Ratna-kara and Rud-rata, the first of whom lived in the first 
half of the ninth century A.D., and the other in the second half, and 
in their writings the game is called “ Chaturanga , or the Four 
Membered (Army).” 
Abu Rihan, the Beruni or Foreigner, as he is called (the “ Alberu- 
ni ” of Europeans —at is merely the Arabic article answering to ‘ the ’), 
who wrote in the reign of Sultan Mas’ud of Ghaznih, says it was well- 
known in his time, early in the eleventh century A.D.—1030 to 
1038. 
But the earliest mention of the game in Sanskrit writings, as far 
as we know, is in the first half of the seventh century A.D., in a work 
entitled “ Harsha-karita ” said to be the earliest attempt at historical 
romance in that language, which was translated by Professor 
