Each player has four beehive-shaped pieces. The pieces of one player are distinguishable from another by their colour: black, green, red and yellow are used for each player.
Six cowrie shells are used to determine the amount to move the players' pieces. They are thrown from the player's hand and the number of cowries which fall with their openings upwards indicate how many spaces the player may move:
COWRIES VALUE
2: 2
3: 3
4: 4
5: 5
6: 6 and another turn
1: 10 and anot ...
Each player's objective is to move all four of their pieces completely around the board, anticlockwise, before their opponents do. The pieces start and finish on the Charkoni.
The playing order is decided by each player throwing the cowries. The player with the highest score starts, and turns continue anticlockwise around the board.
Each player's first piece may leave the Charkoni on any throw. Each player moves their pieces down the centre column of their own arm of the board, then anticlock ...
Pachisi is a Cross and Circle game. Games of this type are: Pancha Keliya from Ceylon, Nyout from Korea, and "Edris To Jin" from Syria. In the Mayan ruins of Mexico vestiges of a similar game have been found. It is presumed that Moctezuma's subordinates played it. It was called Patolli.
There are no standard rules and there are many variations on how to play Pachisi.
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