Pallanguzhi
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பல்லாங்குழி · pallāṅkuḻi
About Pallanguzhi
Pallanguzhi is a two-player game of sowing and counting, played on a wooden board of fourteen pits. Its name is usually explained as pal (many) and kuzhi (pit): a game of many pits. It's best known in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and it has close cousins across South India and beyond.
A game of many pits
Pallanguzhi belongs to the mancala family, one of the oldest families of board games in the world. Mancala games are played everywhere from Africa to Southeast Asia, and they all share one idea: seeds are lifted from a pit and sown, one at a time, into the pits that follow.
In India the family runs deep. Researchers surveying the Aurangabad caves in Maharashtra have described rows of carved cups, two rows of six, dated to the 3rd–2nd century BCE and among the earliest mancala-like boards found in the country. In Karnataka, sets of pits have been found gouged into the stone of the Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple at Srirangapatna, and on a beam of the 13th-century temple at Somanathapura.
Pallanguzhi itself is played mainly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and also in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Tamil communities carried it further still, to Singapore, Trinidad and Guyana. For many families it's a game the older generation remembers well, and one they hand down to children to sharpen counting, concentration and hand–eye coordination.
Known by many names
Most of these names simply describe the board. Ali Guli Mane, for example, means "a wooden block with holes."
The board and the seeds
The board is two rows of seven pits, one row for each player. Boards are usually wood, sometimes carved into the shape of a fish. The counters are whatever a household has to hand: tamarind seeds, cowrie shells (soḻi in Tamil) or small stones.
How many seeds go in each pit varies from place to place. Ali Guli Mane is played with 5, 7 or 12 per pit. This app uses seven.
How it's played
These are the traditional rules as this app plays them. Families and villages vary them, and that's part of the game.
Goal
Capture more seeds than your opponent. Play goes in rounds, and you win when your opponent can't fill a single pit.
The board
Fourteen pits: seven on your side and seven on theirs. Every pit starts with seven seeds. Your row is the one nearest you.
Sow
Pick up all the seeds in one of your pits and drop them one per pit, counter-clockwise.
Keep going
Look at the pit after your last seed. If it has seeds, pick them up and keep sowing.
Capture
If that next pit is empty, capture the seeds in the pit after it, and your turn ends. If both are empty, your turn just ends.
Fours
A pit that reaches exactly four seeds goes to its owner. In the app you tap the glowing pit to claim them, or turn on automatic claiming in Game options.
Rounds and winning
When a row runs dry the round ends, and the other player keeps the seeds on their side. Each player refills their pits from their captured seeds, seven per pit. Pits you can't fill stay closed for that round. If you can't fill any pit, you lose. With a round limit set, the player with the most seeds wins.
The app also includes Kuzhi Pallanguzhi, a simpler single-lap variant, and a Game options sheet for claiming and round limits.
Strategy
- Count before you tap. An empty pit, then a full one after your last seed, is a capture.
- Make fours on your side. Dropping a seed into your opponent's three hands them the claim.
- Every seven seeds is a pit. Pits you can't fill next round close, leaving you fewer moves.
- Don't run dry. If your row empties, your opponent keeps every seed on their side.
Did you know?
It's a counting lesson
Families have long used the game to teach children to count and to concentrate.
No luck involved
There are no dice. Every move is decided by the board and the pit you choose.
Older than you'd think
Carved cups found in the Aurangabad caves, dated to the 3rd–2nd century BCE, are among India's earliest mancala-like boards.
Carved in temple stone
Sets of pits have been found cut into Karnataka temples, including one on a beam at 13th-century Somanathapura.
Seeds from the kitchen
Tamarind seeds and cowrie shells are the classic counters. Small stones work too.
Every region has its rules
Seeds per pit, how captures work and how rounds end all change from place to place.
Cousins across the sea
Congkak in Malaysia and Indonesia and sungka in the Philippines are close relatives.
It travelled with its players
Tamil communities took the game to Singapore, Trinidad and Guyana.
Why this app
Pallanguzhi boards are getting harder to find, and the people who taught the game are getting older. We built this version so the game is a tap away: on a phone at a family gathering, or on a laptop when you remember how your grandmother played. It's made by One Point Five Pixels, a small studio in Bengaluru.