At the beginning of the 5th century of the Christian era, there reigned over the Indies a young monarch of an excellent disposition ; but who, being corrupted by the flatteries of his courtiers, became the tyrant and op pressor of the lower orders. The brahmins and the roy als, that is to say the priests and the nobles, in vain en deavoured to repress his severities ; when a learned brahmin named Sissa, undertook indirectly to open his eyes. With this view he invented the game of chess, in which the king, though the most important of all the pieces, is unfit for an attack, or even for self-defence, without the aid of his subjects. The tradition adds, that the scheme was successful. The king became convin ced of his error ; and, desirous of rewarding his venera ble instructor, requested him to • name his own recom pense. The demand of the brahmin was apparently mo derate. He asked only a single grain of corn for the first chequer of the chess-board, two for the second. four for the third, eight for the fourth ; and so on in a continually doubling proportion for the whole 64 chequers. The king readily agreed to what appeared so reasonable ; but when his treasurers proceeded to calculate the amount, they discovered to their astonishment, that the whole dominions of the monarch were insufficient to discharge the debt. They found, in fact, that such a quantity of corn would be equivalent to 16,384 cities, each of which should contain 1024 granaries, in each of which there should be 174,762 measures, containing each of them 32,768 grains. Upon this the brahmin again took occa sion to exhort his majesty how liable he was to be deceiv ed by those who surrounded him ; and how necessary it was to take care that a bad use should not be made even of his best intentions.
Certain authors, however, have been more disposed to ascribe the honour of the invention of chess to the Chi nese than to the Hindus. Such is the opinion of the ho nourable Dailies Barrington, in his elaborate " Historical disquisition on the game of Chess." (.1rchicol. vol. ix.) Such also is the opinion of Mr Irwin, in the paper alrea dy quoted. The young mandarin, named Tingica, who sheaved him the Chinese chess-board, claimed this ho nour for his countrymen, and brought him a Chinese MS. containing an account of the origin of the game. It was an extract from the Coneum, or Chinese annals, and is as follows : " 379 years after the time of Confucius, or 1965 years ago, Hung Cochu, king of Kiangnan, sent an expedition into the Shensi country, under the command of a manda rin called Hansing, to conquer it. After one successful campaign the soldiers were put into winter quarters, where finding the weather much colder than what they had been accustomed to, and being also deprived of their wives and families, the army, in general, became im patient of their situation, and clamorous to return home. Hansing upon this revolved in his mind the had conse quences of complying with their wishes. The necessity of soothing his troops, and reconciling them to their po sition, appeared urgent, in order to finish his operations in the ensuing year. He was a man of genius, as well as a good soldier ; and having contemplated some time on the subject, he invented the game of chess, as well for an amusement to his men in their vacant hours, as to in flame their military ardour, the game being wholly found ed on the principles of war. The stratagem succeeded to his wish ; the soldiery were delighted with the game; and forgot, in their daily contests for victory, the incon veniences of their post. In the spring the general took
the field again, and, in a few months, added the rich country of Shensi to the kingdom of Kiangnan, by the defeat and capture of its king Choupayuen, a famous warrior among the Chinese. On this conquest Hung Cochu assumed the title of emperor, and Choupaynen put an end to his own life in despair." Du Halde, however, and the other Chinese missiona ries, are not disposed to ascribe the origin of chess to China ; and say expressly, that the Chinese themselves acknowledge that they received the game from the Hin dus. 1\11. Freret, in a memoir on the subject in the Trans actions of the Academy of Belles Lettres, asserts that it is said in the Hai-Pica, or great Chinese dictionary, that this game was introduced from India into China under the reign of Vouti, about the year 537 before Christ. The claim of the Hindus, therefore, to the honour of this invention, seems on the whole the best supported.
With respect to the origin of the name by which it has been commonly distinguished, Sir William Jones is disposed to derive it from the Sanscrit appellation of chaturanga, or the game of the four angas, or members of an army. " By a natural corruption of the pure San sera word," says he, " it was changed by the old Per sians into chatrang ; but the Arabs, who soon after took possession of their country, had neither the initial nor final letter of that word in their alphabet, and conse quently altered it further into shatrang, which found its The rook or rok has his name, according to Sir Wil liam Jones, from the Bcngalesc rot' h, or Persian rok'h, signifying an armed chariot ; and such, we have seen, is the designation of this piece among the Chinese, ac fording to Mr Irwin. Others deduce it from the Indian name of a camel, by which the chariot was drawn ; and if we suppose the chariot fitted up like the castle which is fixed on the elephant's back, when he is equipped for battle, «e get a plausible origin of the term castle, as. NI, ell as of the form now commonly given to this piece. The knights, or horses, as they arc frequently called, have continued uncnanged in all the variations of thc game ; but the same has not been the fate of the piece which we now strangely enough call a bishop. .Among thc Chinese he was a mandarin ; among Inc Indians an elephant, called in that language whence seems to have come the fol or fool of the Fr( tech. By old English writers, this piece is called alphin ausin, or elphyn, from an Arabic word signifying an elephant ; and he still is called an elephant by the Russians and Swedes. Some times he has been an archer ; and, among the Germans, he is a hound or runner. The Poles call Min the priest, and the English thc bishop; for what reason it is not cast' to say ; possibly from an accidental conversion of the cap and bells of the French fol, into the bifurcated mitre of a bishop. The pawns are supposed to receive their name from pedones, a barbarous Latin term for foot soldiers ; but it is more probable that the word conies from an Eas tern term of the same import. In China, we have seen that they are called ping, which is almost identical with the French pion. The Germans, Danes, and Swedes, have converted these subordinate pieces into peasants.