Pasu Pondi
Game type: Two-player two-row mancala without stores, 7 holes per row — clockwise Indian-style relay sowing; mid-sow fours captured by hole owner, pondi sweeps beyond an empty landing pit
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Overview
Pasu Pondi ("sweep four", from Tamil pasu meaning "cow" and pondi signifying "sweep") is a venerable South Indian mancala game played predominantly by Tamil women in rural villages throughout Tamil Nadu. Though occasionally set up in open courtyards, the game is traditionally reserved for daytime leisure and rarely played after dusk. Contests often span several hours, drawing animated crowds of friends and family who observe, advise, and celebrate key turns. The game was first systematically documented by Dr. L. S. Saraswathi in 1995 and shares strong genealogical affinities with games like Pallam Kurie and Pandi, which were documented by Lynn Rohrbough in 1955.
Board
- Rows: 2
- Holes per row: 7 (14 playing holes total)
- Stores: None (captured counters are set aside in players' reserves)
- Counters per hole at start: 5 (local traditions occasionally substitute 6 counters)
- Each player commands the row of seven holes on their side of the board.
How to Play
- Sowing in Pasu Pondi moves strictly in a clockwise direction around the board.
- On their turn, a player scoops all counters from any non-empty hole in their own row and distributes them clockwise, dropping one counter into each subsequent hole.
- Sowing proceeds in Indian-style relay laps: when the last counter in hand is placed into a hole, the player lifts all counters from the immediate next hole and continues sowing in another lap.
- The turn ends when the final counter of a hand falls into a hole followed immediately by an empty hole.
- The game concludes when all seeds on the board are concentrated on one side; the remaining seeds are claimed by the player who owns those holes.
- Multi-round match play: between games, participants refill their holes with 5 counters each from their accumulated captures. Any holes that cannot be completely stocked are closed and bypassed during play. The match continues until one player is unable to fill even a single pit.
Capturing
- Hole-owner four (Pasu): At any moment during sowing, if a hole comes to contain exactly four counters, the player who owns that hole immediately captures all four counters.
- Empty-hole sweep (Pondi): Once a turn finishes because the hole following the final drop is empty, if the hole immediately succeeding that empty one is occupied, the active player captures all counters from that occupied hole.
End of Game and Winning
- A game is won by the player who captures the majority of seeds.
- In multi-round play, victory belongs to the player who drives their opponent to complete exhaustion, leaving them unable to fill a single hole.
Notes
- Pasu Pondi is distinguished by its clockwise sowing orientation, a rarity among two-row South Asian mancala games which more commonly favor counter-clockwise distribution. The dual capture mechanisms reflect the game's title: pasu represents the mid-sow harvest of four counters by the pit's proprietor, while pondi is the finishing sweep across an empty pit.
Source: Mancala World – Pasu Pondi