Friday, August 18, 2006

The Play of Five



Elemental Explanation

The name GoKrida was first applied to the game during the 1672 World Tournament held under Southeast Asia. Huan Zhu, the venerable scholar of GoKrida origins, joined the Japanese word for Five (go) with the Sanksrit term for Play (krida). Until that time, GoKrida had been known in local languages as The Play of Five, Five Forces, The Elements Game, etc.

The diagram above shows the lines of power between the elements. Each element dominates another element, which means that battle will naturally favour the dominating element. There are also lines of support which indicate the most favourable allies.

There has been some interesting discussion among GoKrida scholars in the past century. For instance, Prof. Peter Dunhauser compares the five elements to Joseph Campbell's archetypes (Hero, Lover, etc.), while Tony Seymour investigates how the elements of Go-Krida differ from traditional five-element philosophies around the world.

Actual GoKrida game sets are quite rare nowadays. The last commercial product by Brigham and Sons Ltd. was discontinued in 1873, while there are only a few of the older handcarved sets left in existence.

Addendum
The Sky Element is usually known as the Fire Element in European versions of the game, while the Hindu variant replaces Leaf with Fire.

(archive.org)

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