Tigers and Goats (Puli - Meka)

It's summer. Too hot to play outside. There's also a lockdown in many places around India. So here's a traditional board game you can play at home. The Telugu name is Puli-Meka where Puli means Tiger and Meka means goat. The game goes by different names in different parts of the country. This game is quite old in India. Did you know that game boards have been found etched into stones in various temples?

You don't need much to play this game, just a place to draw the game board, a few buttons or tokens and lots of strategy! You also need one other person to play with.

One person plays as "goats" and the other play as "tigers". If the goats trap all the tigers, the goats win. If the tigers can capture all the goats (except the last two), the tigers win. Try playing both sides to see what happens. There are two videos explaining the rules in detail.

Here's the game board for you to print:

Here are the videos explaining the game:

Once you master this layout, you can try other layouts of the game board. The rules stay the same. There's one layout given below. You can find another version here. The link also contains an explanation of the rules so take a look.

Don't forget to send an email telling us how you like the game! If you know of any other traditional games, do write in or share a video.