Pallanghuzhi, also known as Pallankuli, is a traditional mancala game played in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Here are the game rules:
Board Setup:
Pallanghuzhi is played on a rectangular wooden board with two rows and seven columns.
The board has a total of 14 cups (kuḻi in Tamil) arranged in two rows.
Each player has their own row of seven cups.
Counters:
The game uses 146 counters, which can be seeds, shells, or small stones.
Six counters are placed in each cup except for the middle cup in each row, which contains only two counters.
Gameplay:
Players take turns distributing the counters over all the pits.
The starting player lifts the counters from any of their holes and, going counter-clockwise, places one counter in each hole.
If a player reaches the end of their cups, they continue on their opponent’s side of the board.
When a player drops their last counter, they take the counter from the next cup and continue placing them in this way.
If the last counter falls into a cup with an empty cup beyond, the counters in the cup beyond the empty hole are captured by the player and put into their store.
If the last counter falls into a cup with two empty holes beyond, the player captures no counters, and their turn is over.
The next player continues play in the same way, taking counters from any of their cups and going around placing counters in a counter-clockwise direction.
If, after having a counter dropped into it, a cup contains six counters, those counters become the property of the player who dropped the counter (known as “pasu” in Tamil).
The game ends when one of the players captures all the counters, and that player is declared the winner.
Variations:
There are several variations of the game depending on the number of shells each player starts with.
Some regions play with five or four seeds in each cup.
The key strategy involves capturing opponents’ counters while protecting your own.
Enjoy playing Pallanghuzhi!