NEPAL, 19TH CENTURY

The present painting would have been utilized as a board game played with dice. The board represents the progress of life with certain squares denoting good deeds, and others bad deeds, along with the consequences of both actions; the squares at the lower rungs represent states of hell ultimately leading up towards the heavens. The game, often played during the Paryusana festival, was popular amongst Jain nuns who used it as a didactic pastime to impart the notion of karma. Versions were also adapted for Hindus and Muslims; interestingly, and perhaps unusually, this present example includes Buddhist deities.