Chovi / Seashells / Traditional Ancient South Indian Game – 72 nos

Chovi/Seashells have used throughout history and pre-history by humans for several yet totally different functions. But these don’t seem to be the sole quite shells, most of the time, the shells from animals like land snails and mussels.

Common Name of Chovi/Seashells:

Cowry is the common name of small marine snails to the small molten calf. Another name is Gauri. The hole in these snails is referred to as Soki. It has shaped tiles and a flat footer.

The mother stage of these animals is 190 years old. The cholesterol used for the sake of predictability, python.

The barnacles, horseshoe crabs, and brachiopods are different shells apart from mollusk shells that are square in shape.

How to Play Pallanguzhi (பல்லாங்குழி):

Step 1: Each cup filled with Five cowrie shells. There are two players play this game. The player first picks the shells of a cup from her side and move it clockwise by placing one shell in each hole. When the player dropped all the taken shell in the cups, she will take the shell from next cup and continues placing. If the last shell completed and there is the empty shell the next, the shells in the cup following the empty cup belong to her.

Step 2: The player continues playing the game with shells from the next cup. If the last shell falls into a cup with two empty holes following, she gets no shells and her turn is over. The next player continues to play in the same way.

Step 3: If, after dropped a shell into a cup that contains four shells are called “Pasu” in Tamil. Those shells become the property of the player to whom the cup belongs to. The round is over when no shells remain.

Once the first round is over players fill the cups as many of their holes as possible with 5 shells each from their stores.

Step 4: The winner of the first round will have a surplus of shells which are kept in her store. The loser will be unable to fill all holes of her side. These unfilled holes are marked as “Rubbish holes.”, that is “Thokkam” in Tamil.

Step 5: In the next round, the game continuos as before but without including the rubbish holes. The one who starts first will go second in the next round. During the second game, if the player got shells to fill her empty holes, then the shells are added gain while playing. The game is over if the player is unable to fill her cups with five shells each at the end of the round.

Chovi/Seashells Package Specifications: