Ali Guli Mane

Game type: Two-player two-row mancala without stores, seven holes per row, five seeds per hole — Indian multi-lap relay sowing (pussa kanawa); saada conclusion capturing the succeeding hole and its opposite; capture grants an extra sowing

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Overview

Ali Guli Mane (Kannada for "wooden block with hollows") is an ancient, beloved mancala game native to South India, especially widespread across Karnataka, northern Kerala, and southern Andhra Pradesh. Deeply intertwined with the agrarian rhythm of seasonal sowing and harvesting, the game has been played for centuries by young and old across rural village communities. Boards are traditionally hewn from dense hardwoods or cast in bell metal, though hollows were frequently carved directly into stone slabs on temple verandas, courtyard steps, and porch floors. Players employ smooth tamarind seeds (hunase beeja), scarlet coralwood / wild licorice seeds (gulaganji), or small cowrie shells (kavade). In modern times, heritage organizations such as Chintana Balaga in Mysore continue to preserve the game through competitive cultural tournaments.

Board

• Ranks/rows: Two
• Holes per row: 7 playing pits (total 14 pits, known as ane)
• Stores: None; captured seeds are banked off the board
• Counters: 5 seeds per hole at the start (70 seeds total)
• Layout:

   [ 0 ]  [ 1 ]  [ 2 ]  [ 3 ]  [ 4 ]  [ 5 ]  [ 6 ]   <- Player 1
   [ 7 ]  [ 8 ]  [ 9 ]  [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ]  <- Player 0

• Sowing ring: Proceeds counter-clockwise (Player 0's row right-to-left: 13 down to 7; Player 1's row left-to-right: 0 up to 6).

How to Play

• Players take turns moving stones.
• A player must move on their turn as long as at least one of their own seven pits holds seeds.
• The player scoops all seeds from any one of their non-empty pits and sows them one by one counter-clockwise around the board into subsequent pits.
• *Indian Multi-Lap Relay (Pussa Kanawa):*
  • When the last seed in hand is placed into a hole, the player inspects the hole immediately following it in the sowing direction.
  • If that following hole is occupied, the player scoops up all its seeds and distributes them in a fresh lap.
  • Sowing continues in successive laps until the hole immediately following the landing hole is empty. This empty stop is called saada.
• Bonus Sowing on Capture:
  • If a player succeeds in making a capture on their opening move of a turn, they earn a second, bonus sowing from any of their own occupied pits.
  • The turn then terminates after the second saada.

Capturing

• When a saada occurs (the hole immediately following the final drop is empty):
  • The player captures all seeds contained in the hole beyond the empty hole (two holes ahead of the landing spot).
  • In addition, the player also captures all seeds contained in the hole directly opposite that succeeding hole across the board.
  • Both captured piles are scooped up and added to the player's off-board score bank.
  • If the succeeding hole and its opposite are both empty, no seeds are captured.

End of Game and Winning

• The game terminates when neither player can make a move because the small holes on the board have been emptied or a player is immobilized with no seeds on their side.
• Each player tallies the seeds they have captured throughout play.
• The player who has accumulated the greater number of captured seeds wins the game.
• In traditional multi-round match play, players attempt to refill their pits with 5 seeds each from their captured piles. Any holes that cannot be filled are marked (e.g., with small twigs or pebbles) and excluded from subsequent rounds. Play continues across rounds until one player is unable to fill a single hole.

Notes

• Linguistic origins: In Kannada, Ali or Aralu means seeds or beads, Guli denotes pits or hollows, and Mane translates to house or board.
• Traditional folklore: Playful village customs surround match outcomes; the defeated player was traditionally subjected to lighthearted rhyming songs, asked to carry the wooden board balanced on their head, or tasked with gently blowing fine ash out of all fourteen empty hollows without scattering it outside the board.
• The game is captured in celebrated regional visual arts, notably G. L. N. Simha's classic painting Aligulimane.

Source: Mancala World – Ali Guli Mane

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