NODE / 0224attestedSanskrit
caturaṅga
TRANSLITERATION caturaṅga
four-limbed army; chess game-name
- DATE
- 6th century CE
- SENSE
- four limbed army game
- FAMILY
- Indo-European / Indo-Aryan
- CANONICAL KEY
- node:22:caturanga:attested:sense:four-limbed-army-game
Graph-only Indian game-name stage; Iranica calls the sixth-century occurrence the first certain mention.
01ANCESTRAL EDGES
ROOT OF THIS ROOT
*THE TRAIL ENDS HERE.No securely reviewed ancestor extends beyond this node. 1 evidence path stops at this boundary.
INSPECT 1 CITED BOUNDARY CLAIM
02DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES
THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP
DESCENDANTborrowingprobable
Middle Persian · Middle Persian · chess gamečatrang
chess
- SOUND
- Sanskrit caturaṅga is adapted as Middle Persian čatrang with contraction of the medial syllables.
- MEANING
- A “four-limbed” army designation becomes the board-game name.
- CHRONOLOGY
- India to Sasanian Persia in or around the sixth century.
- SCHOLAR
- Bo Utas
- CONFIDENCE
- probable — Iranica says the origin is obscure but places the first certain Sanskrit mention and Persian introduction in the sixth century.
03TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE
EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE
This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.
- UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES
- 7
- REVIEWED EDGES
- 7
- DEEPEST PATH
- 7
- MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
- 1
HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE
STEP 01borrowingprobable
- SOUND
- Sanskrit caturaṅga is adapted as Middle Persian čatrang with contraction of the medial syllables.
- MEANING
- A “four-limbed” army designation becomes the board-game name.
HISTORICAL STEP 021 EDGE
STEP 02historical continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Persian šatranj continues Middle Persian čatrang with palatal and final-consonant development.
- MEANING
- The game name remains chess.
HISTORICAL STEP 031 EDGE
STEP 03borrowingestablished
- SOUND
- Persian šatranj is borrowed into Arabic with the definite article al- and the game-name consonant frame retained.
- MEANING
- The game name remains chess.
HISTORICAL STEP 041 EDGE
STEP 04competing borrowing routeproposed
- SOUND
- Encyclopaedia Iranica groups Old French eschés with descendants of Arabic al-šaṭranj; the exact phonological mediation conflicts with the reviewed šāh account.
- MEANING
- The traveling name of the game supplies a competing source for the French game name.
Bo Utas and Encyclopaedia Iranica contributors1 CITATIONEDGE 217 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 051 EDGE
STEP 05historical continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Anglo-French plural forms continue continental Old French eschés with dialectal spelling differences.
- MEANING
- Chess pieces or checks become the name of the game as a whole.
HISTORICAL STEP 061 EDGE
STEP 06borrowingestablished
- SOUND
- Anglo-French escheks / eschez enters Middle English as chesse, ches, and esches.
- MEANING
- The formally plural French game name becomes an English mass/singular game name.
HISTORICAL STEP 071 EDGE
STEP 07historical continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Middle English chesse / ches stabilizes as modern chess with final spelling simplification.
- MEANING
- The board-game meaning remains stable.
“Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.
04RECORDED EVIDENCE
ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE
NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.The reviewed graph does not yet attach a source-reported or directly inspected witness to this canonical form.
05EDITORIAL REUSE
WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE