Snakes & Ladders Jain Version

Snakes and ladders was a popular game in India. This version teaches about Jain beliefs.

The board represents a person’s progress in life.Each square says something about behavior or the Jain religion. The ladders represent good behavior that allows people to move to a higher level. The snakes represent bad behavior leading to descent to a lower level.

How to Play:
Throw the dice to move your counter. If you land on the head of a snake, you will descend to the tail. If you land on the bottom of a ladder, you can ascend to the first stage of the ladder. On your next turn you must throw the dice again to continue.

According to Jain cosmology, there are three worlds across which souls move for a long period of time, with one re-birth after another, moving upwards and downwards as a result of their actions (karma), until they finally reach the summit of perfection.


The largest, lower world is formed from a pyramid of seven hells. The five lowest levels, the hells of sand, mud, smoke, darkness and deepest darkness, are inhabited by infernal beings. Low ranking and malign gods live on the highest hell levels of jewels and gravel.


In the middle world is Jambudvipa or the ‘continent of the rose-apple tree’, at the centre of which is Mount Meru, surrounded by mountain ranges shaped like elephant tusks. As the central mountain of the world, Mount Meru extends both upwards and downwards, with the divine palace of the Jinas on the top and surrounded by heavenly palaces and temples in each of the cardinal directions. Jambudvipa is surrounded by rings of alternating oceans and mountain ranges. The middle world is the home of five sensed animals and humans and is where Tirthankaras are born.


The upper world comprises seven regions, each containing heavenly palaces and inhabited by gods of various ranks. The summit is the home of the perfect ones (siddhas) beneath which are the five unsurpassable gods.