The Origin of Snakes and Ladders

Snakes and Ladders comes from India. Long before it became a children's race to square 100, it existed as Moksha Patam, a board game for moral and spiritual instruction in which ladders stood for virtues and snakes for vices. It reached Britain in the late nineteenth century as Snakes and Ladders, and in 1943 Milton Bradley released the American version, Chutes and Ladders. Leela, the game of self-knowledge, is the living descendant of that same tradition.

Below is how the game changed on its way west, what was lost, and what Leela kept.

The Indian original

In India the game was known by several names, Moksha Patam and Gyan Chaupar among them. "Moksha" means liberation from the cycle of rebirth, and the board was a map of the way there.

Each square stood for a state or a quality. Landing at the foot of a ladder meant a virtue carried you upward. Landing on a snake's head meant a vice pulled you down. The roll of the die stood in for karma, the circumstances you do not choose, while the squares showed what those circumstances make of you.

Tradition often credits the game to Gyandev, a thirteenth-century poet-saint. That attribution is traditional rather than established; the game's real origins are older and less certain. What is clear is its purpose: it was a teaching tool, not a pastime.

One detail tells you a lot about that purpose. In the Indian boards, snakes generally outnumbered ladders. The route to liberation was meant to feel harder than the route to a fall.

What changed in Britain and America

When the game arrived in Britain in the late nineteenth century, it was sold as Snakes and Ladders. The religious framework fell away. Early British editions still carried moral pictures of virtue and vice, but those faded too, and the game became a simple race.

In the United States Milton Bradley went further, in 1943, replacing the snakes with chutes and calling it Chutes and Ladders. The version most people in the English-speaking world grew up with is that one: a race to square 100 decided almost entirely by the die.

Three things were lost along the way:

The meaning of the squares. In the original every square said something. In the children's version they are just numbers.

The imbalance. The extra snakes, which made the point that falling is easier than rising, were evened out to make the game fair and fun.

The purpose. Moksha Patam was never about winning. Snakes and Ladders is only about winning.

Leela: the tradition that kept its meaning

Leela is the form in which the original idea survived intact. In the modern version described by Harish Johari, the board has 72 squares, each describing a state of consciousness, and the ladders became arrows. Snakes remain snakes.

The rules keep the spiritual logic that the children's game discarded. Your piece starts off the board on square 68, Cosmic Consciousness, and can only enter the game on a roll of six. It then drops to square 6, Delusion, and the aim is to find your way back to 68. It is a circle rather than a race.

And crucially, you do not play against anyone. You bring a question about your own life, stop on each square, and connect what it describes to that question. Arrows point to what supports you; snakes point to the mechanism that pulls you back. The full rules are on the page about how to play Leela, and every square is described in the guide to the 72 Leela squares.

The board itself is organised in eight rows of nine. In the tradition the first seven rows correspond to the seven chakras and the eighth lies beyond them, which is covered in the levels and chakras of the Leela board.

Snakes and Ladders versus Leela

Goal. Snakes and Ladders: reach the last square first. Leela: return to square 68.

Opponents. Snakes and Ladders: the other players. Leela: none; you play with your own question.

Squares. Snakes and Ladders: numbers. Leela: states of consciousness.

Moving up. Snakes and Ladders: a ladder. Leela: an arrow.

Start. Snakes and Ladders: square 1. Leela: off the board, entering on a six.

The die. Snakes and Ladders: luck. Leela: the circumstances you do not choose.

Can you still play the original?

Yes. Leela's rules and board are public domain, so you can play it on a printed board with an ordinary die, through an AI chat with a prompt, or in an app. A first game takes ninety minutes to three hours. What you need is covered in the beginner's guide, and the options with their limits are compared on the page about playing Leela online on your own.

In short

Snakes and Ladders is an Indian teaching game with its meaning removed. As Moksha Patam, its ladders were virtues, its snakes were vices, and there were more snakes than ladders on purpose. Britain turned it into a race and America replaced the snakes with chutes.

Leela is the branch of that tradition that kept its purpose: 72 squares describing states of consciousness, arrows and snakes as pointers rather than luck, and no opponent except your own question.