Names, traditions and living adaptations
Leela in India, Lilah in Spanish, Maha Lila in Brazil, Âriflerin Satrancı in Turkey. Follow the documented connections between historical games, modern translations and communities around the world. Their teachings, layouts and rules retain their differences.
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Across languages and traditions
Click a country or a location. See the game, its tradition and the places documented there. Gold areas have researched examples.
Leela Quest’s Jain board artwork · surviving Jain and Vaishnava charts differ
Indian family
Western India · 18th–19th centuries
Scholarly work reconstructs a varied family of games of knowledge from surviving religious charts.
Regional anchor; no single city or unchanged universal board is implied.
Reviewed 2026-10-08. Unmarked places are research gaps. Map areas help navigation; approximate anchors and borders do not imply ownership or measure popularity. Natural Earth geographic areas.
Explore the playable traditions
Indian games of knowledge
लीला
A journey through the game of life.
Snakes, arrows and a question you bring to the board. Leela belongs to a varied Indian family of games about knowledge and liberation, shaped by different teachings and ways of seeing the world.
Leela Quest’s interpretation · historical editions vary
The connections behind the names
Illustrations below use Leela Quest board artwork and reference diagrams; they are not reproductions of the sourced historical objects or regional editions.
Gyān caupaṛ brings together games of knowledge shaped by Jain and Vaishnava cosmologies. Surviving charts vary substantially: a Punjab Hills example has 342 squares, while a twentieth-century Tamil Nadu print has 120. Names alone cannot tell us the rules.
Historical research ↗ · 342-square board ↗ · Tamil Nadu print ↗
A Sufi board from around 1815 has Persian and English inscriptions and an Indian provenance. Turkish sources use Âriflerin Satrancı and Satranç-ı Urefa; an edition ends at Visal. Tibetan rebirth games describe another spiritual geography. Neither branch is simply a translated 72-square Leela.
Latin America · Lilah and Maha Lila
A Spanish edition of Harish Johari’s Lilah is catalogued under Cuatro Vientos in 1980. A reproduced preface credits Claudio Naranjo and identifies Santiago de Chile. In Buenos Aires, Graciela Cohen / Nalini describes her 72-square Lilah practice and recalls working with Naranjo in 1981.
Spanish edition record ↗ · Preface attribution ↗ · Cohen’s own account ↗
In Brazil, Bia Blossom and Vajra Kika’s Maha Lila Taokopelli explicitly credits Johari, Cohen and Peter Marchand. Their adaptation adds its own card-supported style and material in Portuguese, Spanish and English. These are documented creative and publishing connections, rather than proof that every country plays an identical game.
The Brazilian creators’ lineage and adaptation ↗
01
A 72-square English publishing trail.
02
Spanish writing and Buenos Aires facilitation.
03
Brazilian creators identify both as influences.
Further examples include a Lilah cultural programme in Mexico City, Spanish publishing in Madrid and book catalogue entries in Uruguay and Colombia. The atlas labels each kind of evidence separately.
A French translator’s 1995 preface recalls discovering Leela at Findhorn in 1983. Today, named providers in London, Lithuania, Moscow and Kyiv offer facilitated play, while listings reach Dubai and Bangkok. In Brisbane, a Buddhist centre includes Rebirth in its community games.
Translator’s recollection ↗ · London example ↗ · Brisbane community ↗
Snakes and Ladders, Chutes and Ladders and Indonesian Ular Tangga show the family’s secular reach. Japanese e-sugoroku and East Asian official-promotion boards offer comparisons, with their own histories. Similar-looking grids do not establish that all these games are Leela under another name.
Reviewed 8 October 2026. Some pages were accessible through indexed text when direct fetching was blocked; those limits appear below. Sources document selected examples, not a complete census of global play.
Scholarship
Doctoral research on nearly 150 charts; mostly nineteenth-century western Indian Vaishnava and Jain material. Its dating argument challenges unsupported millennia-old origin claims.
Scholarship
Comparative study of North Indian boards; discusses Nepalese nāgapaśa and the distinct Tibetan rebirth game. Historical transmission is more complex than a single unchanged board.
Reference
Context for Hindu and Jain games of knowledge; terminology does not establish identical layouts.
Scholarship
Jain game charts and religious context; modern app editions should not be presented as the only historical form.
Museum
Late nineteenth-century Punjab Hills object. A concrete counterexample to treating all Indian boards as 72 squares.
Museum
Printed 1985–1989 and collected in Mylapore; documents regional circulation, not a universal South Indian board layout.
Museum
Persian and English inscriptions, British-watermarked paper and a British patron. India is catalogued; Ajmer and Delhi are possible creation locations. Paper manufacture is not game origin.
Publisher
Turkish published edition. Its existence supports Turkish terminology, not nationwide audience size or a confirmed medieval inventor.
Creator
A Turkish edition describes a 101-square route ending in Visal. That is different from Leela Quest’s selected 100-station board.
Broadcaster
Turkish public-facing explanation associated with the series Vuslat. Media exposure is not a measured player population.
Publisher
Arabic-language publishing evidence. Does not establish active playing communities in every Arabic-speaking country.
Bibliography
Published study of a Tibetan Buddhist game. Related spiritual board-game history does not make it the same 72-square Leela.
Publisher
2007 edition of Harish Johari’s modern presentation, with a 72-square foldout board. Bibliography supports modern circulation; promotional antiquity claims need separate evidence.
Bibliography
Spanish Johari edition, 205 pages, ISBN 9788489333079. Catalogue date is corroborated by a surviving-copy listing; not proof of a country’s first encounter.
Reproduced attribution
Attributes the Spanish Lilah preface to Claudio Naranjo and identifies Santiago de Chile, Cuatro Vientos, 1980. Secondary attribution, not an independently inspected original preface.
Creator
Buenos Aires author describes a 72-square Lilah and recalls a connection with Claudio Naranjo in 1981. This is her recollection, not proof of the first introduction to Argentina.
Provider
Lists Lilah training including a June 2025 entry. A listing documents an offer; attendance and continuing availability are not independently verified.
Publisher
Spanish publisher author catalogue and Lilah work. Author travel for other seminars is not sufficient evidence of Lilah practice in every listed country.
Creator
Bia Blossom and Vajra Kika explicitly credit Peter Marchand, Graciela Cohen and Harish Johari. Their 72-field, card-supported adaptation has its own style. They also credit dissemination in Brazil and Portugal.
Creator publication
Supporting bibliography includes Johari and Cohen. The site offers Portuguese, Spanish and English material. Full PDF fetch timed out during this review; the creator webpage was available through search indexing.
Institution
Programme describes Joel Rendón’s Lilah presentation, scheduled for 6 July 2024. Cultural-event evidence, not a national player estimate. Direct fetch blocked; indexed official text was reviewed.
Bookseller
Montevideo bookseller lists Cohen’s book. This establishes a local catalogue entry, not a facilitated playing community or current stock.
Bookseller
Colombian-market imported-book listing. It is distribution evidence only, not proof of a Colombian historical edition or local group.
Translator recollection
Translator’s account and reproduced preface dated May 1995 describe encountering Leela at Findhorn in 1983, then publishing his French translation with Le Souffle d’Or in 1995. A personal publishing trail, not a national introduction date.
Provider
London-based provider advertises individual, group and online Leela sessions. Evidence of an offer, not verification of outcomes or audience size.
Provider
Lithuanian studios explicitly describe a Johari-based 72-square Lila. Their translated website pages do not prove communities in other countries.
Provider
Moscow provider lists facilitated Lila. Modern practice evidence; historical and therapeutic claims in provider copy are not adopted here.
Provider
Kyiv studio advertises individual and small-group play. Its current page is an offer, not independent proof of attendance or medical benefit.
Provider
Dubai provider describes facilitated 72-field Leela. Location and service offer do not establish an Arabic historical version or regional penetration.
Event host
Bangkok listing includes a Leela event dated 29 September 2026. The event listing was reviewed; occurrence and attendance were not independently confirmed.
Community institution
Brisbane Buddhist centre names Rebirth as a favourite community game. Supports a concrete contemporary Tibetan-game community outside Asia.
Distributor
Canadian publisher/distributor catalogue for the English Johari edition. Country-level distribution anchor, not an identified player community.
Museum
British commercial descendant; curator text describes a 1920s example. Separate from the contemplative modern Leela practice.
Manufacturer
US commercial form uses a spinner and its own rules. A descendant of the family, not an alternative name for a Sufi or Leela app.
Retailer
Indonesian catalogue describes a 100-square Ular Tangga product. Documents a secular local name and distribution, not contemplative Leela practice.
Retailer
South African retail example of the secular descendant. Not evidence of a spiritual Leela community across Africa.
Museum
Japanese illustrated race-board comparison. Similarities do not by themselves establish direct Leela descent; kept in a separate comparison layer.
Research catalogue
Chinese official-promotion game with its own structure. Comparative context only; it is not a Chinese translation of Leela. Do not conflate it with xuanfo tu, discussed separately in Schmidt-Madsen’s thesis.
Museum
Korean official-promotion board comparison. A separate game tradition, not established Leela lineage.
Map data
Small-scale land outlines only. Points are approximate city or regional anchors; borders, market shares and transmission routes are not inferred.
Begin with the 72-square Leela board. Gyan Chaupar and Moksha Patam name the wider Indian family of games of knowledge and liberation; historical boards have different layouts and rules.
Explore the Sufi board through its 100 stations. Turkish readers may know it as Âriflerin Satrancı or Satranç-ı Urefa. Visal / Visâl and Wisal refer to union, a destination in some versions, rather than a separate set of rules. Attribution to Ibn Arabi is disputed.
The Tibetan Buddhist game is known in English as Rebirth: The Tibetan Game of Liberation, the title of Mark Tatz and Jody Kent’s published study. Leela Quest offers a 104-square Tibetan board with its own teachings and progression.
Jain games of knowledge appear under both the vernacular gyān bāzī and Sanskritic jñāna bāzī spellings. Explore Leela Quest’s 84-square Jain board as a distinct path through its cosmology and ethical teachings.
These South Indian names belong to the tradition of ladders leading toward Vaikuntha. Leela Quest’s 100-square Vaishnava board follows its own devotional journey; regional editions need not share exactly the same board.
Explore distinct visual journeys inspired by Taoist, Christian and Kabbalistic traditions, psychological frameworks and quantum metaphors. These boards are contemporary adaptations, each with its own teachings and artwork.
Balance, flow and harmony
Follow a landscape of water, mountains and changing conditions. This Taoist-inspired journey explores balance, simplicity and action that works with the situation—inviting you to consider where to act and where to make room.
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The Christian contemplative ascent
An ascent through repentance, discernment, the dark night and love, inspired by Christian mystical traditions. Bring a question about how you live, what you hold onto, or what compassion asks of you.
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The Tree of Life and the sefirot
Explore the Tree of Life through the qualities of the ten sefirot, from Malkhut toward Keter. The board invites reflection on how wisdom, understanding, restraint and generosity meet in your everyday choices.
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Individuation and the road to the Self
Move through persona, shadow and the images of the inner life toward wholeness. Use this Jungian-inspired board to reflect on the roles you inhabit, the qualities you overlook and the parts of yourself you want to understand.
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Needs, growth and self-actualization
Travel from basic needs through safety, belonging and esteem toward self-actualization and self-transcendence. Each square offers a way to consider what supports you now and what might make further growth possible.
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The eight stages of development
Explore the tensions of Erikson’s eight stages, from trust and autonomy to intimacy, generativity and integrity. Reflect on how earlier experiences and present relationships shape the question you bring to the board.
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Parts, connection and reflection
A reflective journey inspired by parts work, attachment and ideas about nervous-system safety. Notice different needs and protective responses with curiosity, and explore what compassionate self-leadership could mean for you.
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Physics used as a contemplative metaphor
Wave, uncertainty, interaction and coherence become images for exploring possibility and change. Physics provides the vocabulary for this imaginative board; its reflections are metaphors, rather than scientific claims about consciousness.
Explore this board →The web board builder lets you write square teachings, map snakes and arrows, choose rules and artwork, and decide who can play. Create a personal journey, a learning activity or a shared reflection. You can begin manually or with an AI-assisted draft that you review and edit.
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