Merchant Ambassador Classic Snakes & Ladders Game

Millions have played a version of Snakes & Ladders in their youth, almost all without knowing the complex history & philosophies integrated into the designs & gameplay. The game was popular in ancient India under names which translate roughly as "Game of Self-Knowledge", "Ladder to Salvation", or "Steps to the Highest Place", showing the weight of the content it was meant to convey. The games were associated with traditional Hindu philosophy contrasting karma and kama, or destiny and desire. The game was introduced in England in 1892, with designs adjusted so that the Indian virtues and vices were replaced by English ones in hopes of better reflecting Victorian doctrines of morality. Many of the board designs were heavy with symbolic images, the top area featuring gods & angels, while the lower areas of the board were covered with pictures of animals, flowers and people. The ladders would represent virtues such as generosity, faith, and humility, while the snakes represented vices such as lust, anger, murder, and theft. The morality lesson of the game was that a person can attain salvation through doing good, whereas by doing evil one will be reborn as lower forms of life. Nowadays most of the heavy-handed moral lessons have been replaced with more frivolous illustrations, however the essence of the game remains loyal to history - on various squares are ladders that move players further up the board and snakes that slide them back down. The first player to reach the final square, entirely by chance, is declared the winner!