Pallanguzhi : Pandi Attam

Now with online play. Add a friend by code, take your turn, and put the phone down. She'll get a nudge when it's her move. Also vs Paati, Pass & Play, and a daily kolam.

Sit across the table from Paati and play the game your grandmother taught you.

Pallanguzhi (பல்லாங்குழி), sometimes spelled Pallankuzhi, is the old Tamil seed game your family probably played on the floor with a wooden board and a handful of tamarind seeds. It belongs to the Mancala family of "sow and gather" board games, and this version keeps the real Tamil Nadu rules (Pasu Pandi, also called Pandi Attam). It is not a generic Mancala reskin.

Here is the idea. You scoop the seeds from one bowl and drop them one at a time into the bowls ahead. Wherever your last seed lands, you keep going. Get four seeds into a single bowl and a little brass Pasu, a temple cow, wakes up and trots home to you. It is quiet, it is tactile, and it is more strategic than it first looks. Two minutes to learn. Years to get tired of.

WAYS TO PLAY

• vs Paati (AI). A warm grandmother to practise against, any time, fully offline.
• With friends, online. Turn based and unhurried. Share your friend code, tap a friend's name, play your move, and put the phone away. You get a nudge when it is your turn. Have as many games going at once as you like.
• Online match. Get paired with another player and see how you do.
• Pass and Play. Two people, one phone on the table, just like the real board.
• Quick Pandi for one fast round, or Full Pandi, the longer traditional game with tokkam (closed bowls) that runs until one side is starved out.

A SMALL DAILY RITUAL Every morning you can draw a kolam and keep your streak going. It is the same idea as the kolams people chalk at their doorstep at dawn. Skip a day and you start over, the way a real morning at the door works.

YOU MIGHT KNOW IT BY ANOTHER NAME The same board goes by different words. In Tamil Nadu it is Pallanguzhi or Pandi Attam. In Kerala, Pallankuzhi. In Karnataka it is Ali Guli Mane. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana it is Vamana Guntalu. In Sri Lanka, Pallankuli. Around the world it is part of the Mancala family, alongside Congkak, Sungka, Dakon, Oware, Gebeta, and Kalah. If you like count and capture games, you will settle in quickly.

Free to play, and it works offline against Paati with no sign up.

Vaanga, ஒரு ஆட்டம் ஆடலாம். Come, let's play a round.