Paramapadham Rules
The Tamil elder of Snakes and Ladders, thrown with the stick dice.
Paramapadham — Parama Pada Sopanam, the steps to the highest place — is the Tamil board that Snakes and Ladders descends from. A hundred squares, eight virtues for ladders and thirteen asuras for snakes, thrown not with a cube but with the dayakattai, the two four-sided brass sticks. It is played through the night of Vaikunta Ekadasi.
Ways to play Paramapadham
Two to four at the board
Play Paramapadham 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
Bring your piece to square 100, Vaikuntham, reached on the exact throw.
🎲 Paramapadham setup
- The board is a hundred squares under a gopuram, the gate to Vaikuntham at the top.
- Choose how many play, from two to four; the computer takes the seats you do not.
- Pieces are cowries or tamarind seeds, and they begin off the board.
- The game is thrown with two dayakattai — four-sided sticks showing blank, 1, 2 or 3.
▶ How to play Paramapadham
- Throw the two sticks together. The throw is the two faces added — and two blanks are not nothing but twelve.
- Your piece waits off the board until you throw a dayam, a one, which brings it on to square 1.
- A throw of 1, 5, 6 or 12 earns another throw.
- Land exactly at the foot of a virtue — sathiyam, dhanam, porumai, dharmam, thavam, gnanam, bakthi, saranagathi — and it carries you up.
- Land exactly on an asura — Poothanai, Bakasuran, Kamsan, Narakasuran, Ravanan and the rest — and it carries you down.
- Karkotakan, the greatest of the snakes, lies two squares from the end and goes almost to the bottom.
- Square 100 must be reached exactly; a throw that would carry you past leaves the piece where it stands.
📖 Detailed guide
The dayakattai
- Two long four-sided sticks, rolled between the palms and dropped — brass in a household that has them, wood in one that does not.
- Each stick shows a blank, a one, a two or a three, and the throw is the two added together.
- Two blanks are twelve, not zero. It is called eeraaru, “two sixes”.
- A one is a dayam, and the sticks are named for it: தாயக்கட்டை, the dayam sticks.
- A dayam brings a piece onto the board, and 1, 5, 6 and 12 all throw again.
The board and its night
- In Tamil Nadu this is the game of Vaikunta Ekadasi, in the month of Margazhi, when the Paramapada Vaasal — the gate to heaven — is opened in Vishnu temples, Srirangam first among them.
- Families play through the night to keep the vigil awake, which is why the game is long and the snakes are cruel.
- The gate under the gopuram at the top of the board is that door.
- The ladders are virtues and the snakes are asuras out of the puranas; the board is read as the soul’s way up.
How it differs from Snakes and Ladders
- The sticks, not a die — so no 7 through 11, and a twelve out of two blanks.
- A piece must be brought on with a dayam before it can move at all.
- Four throws earn another turn, not just the six.
- More snakes than ladders, and the worst of them two squares from home.
🏁 How Paramapadham is won
The first piece to reach square 100 wins. There are more snakes than ladders on this board, as on the old ones: the good path is the harder one.
❓ Paramapadham — frequently asked questions
How many players do you need for Paramapadham?
Paramapadham is played by 2–4. Seats you do not fill are taken by the computer, so a game always starts.
When can I play Paramapadham?
Paramapadham is in development. It will arrive in Board Games by Vanikar™ and is included in the same subscription as the card games, with nothing separate to buy.
Is Paramapadham 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 Paramapadham have ads?
No. No Vanikar™ game has ever carried advertising, and none ever will.
What is Paramapadham?
The Tamil ancestor of Snakes and Ladders — a hundred squares with virtues for ladders and asuras for snakes, thrown with the dayakattai stick dice. It is traditionally played through the night of Vaikunta Ekadasi.
What are the stick dice?
Dayakattai: two four-sided sticks thrown together, each showing blank, 1, 2 or 3. The throw is their sum, two blanks count as twelve, and a throw of 1, 5, 6 or 12 earns another throw.
Why can I not move my piece?
A piece waits off the board until you throw a dayam — a one. Until then every throw passes to the next seat.
Is it the same game as Moksha Patam?
It is the same family. Paramapadham is the Tamil form; Moksha Patam, Gyan Chaupar and Gyan Bazi are the boards the same idea took elsewhere in India, each with its own size, names and tradition.