Who Invented Snakes and Ladders? The Game That Crossed Three Continents
Who Invented Snakes and Ladders? The Game That Crossed Three Continents
The game sitting on your shelf is not the one that was invented. What we call Snakes and Ladders began as a Hindu morality lesson called Moksha Patam, a spiritual map of virtue, vice, karma, and liberation, played in India for at least two thousand years. By the time Jaques of London published the first English version in 1892, it had crossed three continents, shed most of its theology, and become a fixture of the British nursery.
That transformation says something interesting about what games do. The original Indian snakes were named for specific sins, lust, anger, pride, theft. The ladders represented specific virtues, faith, humility, knowledge, generosity. In the original game, snakes outnumbered ladders, because the designers believed vice was more accessible than virtue. The Victorian nursery quietly rebalanced them.
The Origin: Moksha Patam and the Hindu Morality Map
The game began as a teaching tool, not a pastime. Hindu philosophers designed Moksha Patam to illustrate the relationship between karma and destiny, virtuous actions (ladders) elevate the soul, immoral ones (snakes) drag it back towards rebirth. Different regional versions named the snakes differently, but the structure was consistent.
In some versions, snake 99 led back to square 9, a graphic reminder that pride, so close to liberation, is the most dangerous vice of all. The game reached the Mughal court in the 16th century, where versions were painted on silk. A Mughal variant from approximately 1600 is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A collection, London).
The Journey West: From India to Victorian Britain
British colonists encountered the game in India during the 19th century and brought it home. The theology was stripped away, which was perhaps inevitable. A Victorian children's game could not easily survive with Hindu cosmology intact. The snakes lost their names, the ladders lost their doctrinal explanations, and what remained was pure structure: a board of chance, rewards for good fortune, penalties for bad.
The original game had more snakes than ladders. The path to enlightenment was treacherous. Victorian publishers equalised them, producing a more optimistic map, or perhaps one that simply sold better to parents buying gifts for small children.
Jaques of London and the First English Edition
In 1892, Jaques of London published the first English-language edition of Snakes and Ladders. The company had already given Britain Staunton chess pieces (1849), croquet as a commercial game (1851), and Gossima, later known as table tennis (1890s). Snakes and Ladders was a natural addition to a catalogue built on games that combined elegance with accessibility.
The Jaques edition used a familiar 10×10 grid, numbered 1–100, with snakes and ladders positioned to create genuine tension. A long ladder on square 6 could rocket a player to 87. A snake on 99 plunged them back to 41. The game was designed to end in under thirty minutes, to end definitively, and to be completely fair regardless of age or experience.
Jaques of London has been making traditional board games since 1795. Browse our traditional games collection, including Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Draughts, and other classics, all made to the same standard that earned us a Royal Warrant in the 19th century.
Shop Traditional Games →Why Snakes and Ladders Has Lasted 130 Years
The game has no skill component whatsoever. Every result is determined by a dice roll, and this is the feature that has kept it alive for millennia. A four-year-old beats an adult on equal terms. A child playing for the first time has exactly the same chance of winning as one who has played a hundred times.
This makes it uniquely valuable for teaching children that outcomes are not always a measure of effort. A 2019 study in Early Childhood Education Journal found that games of pure chance are particularly effective at developing emotional regulation in children aged 3–6, precisely because the adult cannot "let" the child win without the child noticing (Ramani & Siegler, 2019).
The Smartphone Free Childhood movement, which has grown significantly in the UK since 2024, points to exactly these qualities. Games where no one has an advantage, where attention is required, where the outcome cannot be predicted or manipulated. Snakes and Ladders fits that description better than almost anything else on the market.
Other Classic Jaques Games to Play Alongside It
Ludo, patented by Jaques of London in 1896, adds a small strategy layer, as players choose which of their four pieces to move. Draughts introduces full strategy once children are ready to move beyond pure chance, typically around age six. Both have lived in British homes for well over a century for the same reason Snakes and Ladders has: they work.
Frequently Asked Questions About Snakes and Ladders
Who invented Snakes and Ladders?
Snakes and Ladders was not invented by a single person. It descends from the ancient Indian game Moksha Patam, designed by Hindu philosophers as a moral and spiritual teaching tool at least 2,000 years ago. British colonists encountered it in India during the 19th century and brought it back to Britain, where Jaques of London published the first English-language version in 1892. In America, Milton Bradley released a version called Chutes and Ladders in 1943, replacing snakes with playground slides.
What do the snakes and ladders represent?
In the original Indian game, snakes represented vices, including lust, anger, pride, and theft, while ladders represented virtues such as faith, humility, knowledge, and generosity. The game illustrated that vice drags the soul backwards (rebirth), while virtue advances it towards liberation (moksha). The Victorian English version removed the specific theological labels but kept the symbolic structure: snakes set you back, ladders advance you.
Is Snakes and Ladders suitable for 3-year-olds?
Yes, Snakes and Ladders is one of the best games for children aged 3 and above precisely because it requires no reading, no complex strategy, and no skill advantage for adults. Children aged 3–4 can follow the rules with minimal explanation. The game teaches basic number recognition, counting, turn-taking, and, crucially, how to accept both winning and losing without it being their "fault." Most child development experts recommend it as one of the first structured board games for this age group.
What is the difference between Snakes and Ladders and Chutes and Ladders?
Chutes and Ladders is the American name for Snakes and Ladders, first published by Milton Bradley in 1943. The snakes were replaced with playground slides (chutes) to create a less frightening version for young children. The board layout and rules are identical. In Britain, the game has always been called Snakes and Ladders, and the Jaques of London version, the original English edition, retains the traditional snake imagery. The two games are mechanically identical; the difference is cosmetic and cultural.