59 
1902.] H. Gr. Raverty— The Invention of Chess and Backgammon. 
upon the game of Nard or Backgammon. He did not invent it, as some 
have supposed; for it had been known long before, as I have already 
shown. Bat, in former times, before Buzur Jamhir improved upon it, 
the dice were but two, on each of which were fifteen marks or dots, 
which being added up made thirty, and the game was single. Buzur 
Jamhir added one dice more, and five other mansubahs or points, as now 
used; and when he had completed his improvements, a complete set was 
despatched to the ruler of Sind, as he had requested. What the upshot 
of the Rai’s challenge was respecting the game of chess has not been 
recorded. 
The names of the seven mansubahs or points in Nard or Back¬ 
gammon, as improved by the sage, Buzur Jamhir, are, 1. Kad, which 
means quantity. 2. Ziydd , increase or growth. 3. Satarcih, veil, 
curtain, star or fortune. 4. Hazaran, thousands. 5. Khanah-gir, 
holder or possessor of the house or compartment. 6. Taivil , long 
prolix, tall; and 7. Mansubah, plan, project, scheme, or game. 
The Arabian prophet, Muhammad, was born in the fortieth year of 
the reign of the Kisra, Nuh-shirwan ; and the historian, Abu-l-Fazl-i- 
Baihaki, previously quoted, who states that Buzur Jamhir had become 
a Christian, says, that the sage, shortly after these events, died from 
the effects of the ill-treatment he had been subjected to; and that a 
year after his death, Nuh-shirwan himself, “ departed to the Fire- 
Temple below,” after a reign of forty-seven years, when Muhammad 
was in his seventh year, 576 A.D. He died a natural death, and was 
never deposed, as Gibbon tells us; but his son and successor, Hurmuz, 
was. 
The pieces in the game of chess were, at first, wooden figures 
having the human form; and what is known now as the King, was then 
called Shah Badshah, from Shah son of Rai Bhallt. The Castle or Tower 
of the present was then styled the Rukh, after that fabulous bird, as 
before mentioned; the Bishop of the present day, was then the Fil or Pil 
(f and p are permutable) or Elephant, and was sometimes called the 
Camel; the Knight or Chevalier was known as the Faras, or Asp, 
signifying a Horse; the Queen was styled Farz, or Farzin, or Farzl, or 
Farzan, and also Wazir or Minister; and the Pawn or Foot-soldier or 
Common Man, was called Piyadah as those words signify. “ Shashdar ” 
means “ Confounded,” “Distressed,” “Astonished,” “Useless for a 
square,” “ Tied up ; ” and “ Shah Mat,” as before mentioned, means 
“ Shah Badshah, or Shah, the King, is reduced to the last extremity, 
conquered,” etc. 
The names used in India differ somewhat, most of them being 
derived from the Sanskrit langunge. 
