We have no means of ascertaining, says Forbes the exact era at
which the Chaturanga passed into the Shatranj, or in other words
at what period as the Muhammadans view it, the Hindus invented
the latter form of the game. The earlier writers of Arabia and
Persia do not agree on the point, some of them placing it as early
as the time of Alexander the Great and others as late as that of
Naushurawan. Even the poet Firdausi, the very best authority
among them though he devotes a very long and a very romantic
episode to the occasion of the invention of the Shatranj, is quite
silent as to the exact period; all that he lets us know on that
point is that it took place in the reign of a certain prince who
ruled over northern India and whose name was Gau, the son of
Jamhur.

Sir William Jones was Judge of a Supreme Court of Judicature
in Bengal, from 27 April, 1783 to 27 April, 1794, when he died
at Calcutta. It is recorded that he came much in contact with
intelligent Brahmans and was much esteemed. He states on the
authority of his friend the Brahman "Radha Kant" "that this
game is mentioned in the oldest (Hindu) law books; and that it
was invented by the wife of Ravan, King of Lanka, the capital
of Ceylon, in order to amuse him with an image of war while
his metropolis was closely besieged by Rama in the second age
of the world."

NOTE. Sir William Jones says: If evidence be required to prove
that chess was invented by the Hindus, we may be satisfied with
the testimony of the Persians, who, though as much inclined as
other nations to appropriate the ingenious inventions of a foreign