How to Play Gyan Bazi
The Jain board — eighty-four squares under a crown of three.
Gyan Bazi — ज्ञान बाज़ी — is the Jain form of the game, from Gujarat and Rajasthan: nine squares by nine with a crown of three over them, eighty-four in all. The vows carry you up and the four passions carry you down, and the last square, at the top of the crown, is Siddhashila, where liberated souls rest at the summit of the universe.
Ways to play Gyan Bazi
Two to four at the board
Play Gyan Bazi against the computer with one, two or three others at the board. Every seat is filled, so a game always starts.
Online with friends and family
Create a board, share the code, and play together on the same board. Online games count towards your rating and My Stats.
Picked up where you left it
Close the tab mid-game and come back to it — the game is kept in your browser, on the board you were playing.
No ads, ever
No advertising, no interruption, nothing to dismiss. The same promise as every Vanikar™ game.
🎯 Objective
Reach square 84, Siddhashila, on the exact throw.
🎲 Gyan Bazi setup
- The board is nine by nine with three more squares crowning it — eighty-four in all.
- Two to four play; empty seats are the computer’s.
- Pieces begin off the board and come on with a dayam.
- The game is thrown with the dayakattai stick dice.
▶ How to play Gyan Bazi
- Throw the two sticks; a dayam brings your piece on, and 1, 5, 6 and 12 throw again.
- The ladders are the vows and the virtues, and they lift you towards the crown.
- The snakes are the four kashayas — krodha (anger), mana (pride), maya (deceit) and lobha (greed) — and what feeds them: attachment, aversion, carelessness, delusion.
- Mithyatva, false belief, is the longest snake of all, and it waits one square from the end.
- Square 84 must be reached exactly; a throw that would carry you past leaves the piece where it stands.
How to play Gyan Bazi
The Jain game of knowledge, played in the app: the board of eighty-four squares, the stick dice, the vows that lift you and the passions that pull you down.
English synthetic narration and on-screen text · translated subtitles and transcript available
Read the transcript
Gyan Bazi is the Jain game of knowledge, from Gujarat and Rajasthan, brought out at Paryushan. This is the board in the Vanikar app. Choose your pieces and how many play. Empty seats are the computer's. Then start the game. Nine squares by nine, with a crown of three above them: eighty-four in all. The last square, at the top of the crown, is Siddhashila, where liberated souls rest. The game is thrown with the dayakattai, two stick dice. A dayam, a throw of one, brings your piece onto the board, and a one, five, six or twelve throws again. The ladders are the vows and the virtues: non-violence, truth, not stealing, forgiveness. Each one lifts you towards the crown. The snakes are the four passions: anger, pride, deceit and greed, and what feeds them. Mithyatva, false belief, is the longest snake of all, and it waits one square from the end. Square eighty-four must be reached exactly. A throw that would carry you past leaves the piece where it stands. The first piece to land there wins. Find Gyan Bazi, and the whole family of boards, at vanikar.games.
📖 Detailed guide
The eighty-four squares
- Nine by nine is eighty-one; the crown of three above it makes eighty-four, the number the board is built on.
- The squares are named for states a soul passes through, as on the other boards of this family.
- The ladders are vows — the small vows of a householder and the great vows of an ascetic — and right conduct.
- The snakes are the passions and their feeders, with false belief the longest of them.
Siddhashila
- The last square, at the top of the crown, is Siddhashila — in Jain cosmology the place at the summit of the universe where liberated souls rest.
- It is drawn over the board as the Jain emblem draws it: a crescent, a point above it for the soul, and three dots beneath for the three jewels — right belief, right knowledge, right conduct.
- It must be reached exactly. A soul does not overshoot.
The stick dice
- Two four-sided sticks, blank to three; the throw is their sum, and two blanks are twelve.
- A dayam — a one — brings a piece onto the board.
- Throws of 1, 5, 6 and 12 earn another throw.
- The same sticks throw Paramapadham, Gyan Chaupar, Shatranj al-Arifin and Dhayam.
🏁 How Gyan Bazi is won
The first piece to land on square 84 wins. Over the board is Siddhashila as the Jain emblem draws it — a crescent open to the sky, the liberated soul a point above it, and under it the three jewels.
❓ Gyan Bazi — frequently asked questions
How many players do you need for Gyan Bazi?
Gyan Bazi is played by 2–4. Seats you do not fill are taken by the computer, so a game always starts.
Where can I play Gyan Bazi?
In your browser at play.vanikar.games, on a computer, a tablet or a phone. Sign in with the same Vanikar™ account you use for the card games.
Is Gyan Bazi included in my subscription?
Yes. One Card Games by Vanikar™ subscription covers the card games, Chess & Checkers and the board games, and every game released after them.
Does Gyan Bazi have ads?
No. No Vanikar™ game has ever carried advertising, and none ever will.
Why eighty-four squares?
Eighty-four is the number the Jain board is built on: nine by nine with a crown of three above it. The last square, at the top of the crown, is Siddhashila.
What are the four passions?
The kashayas — krodha (anger), mana (pride), maya (deceit) and lobha (greed). They are the snakes of this board, together with what feeds them: attachment, aversion, carelessness and delusion.
Do I need to land on 84 exactly?
Yes. A throw that would carry your piece past 84 leaves it where it stands, and you wait for the exact number.
Is it the same as Gyan Chaupar?
They are cousins, not the same board. Gyan Chaupar is the 72-square board whose winning square is 68; Gyan Bazi is the Jain board of 84, whose winning square is the last one, under its own emblem.
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Read the guide