Pallanguli is a game played mostly played by Tamil women, both in Southern India and Sri Lanka and it is known as the number game. Men also sometimes play it for gambling purposes. The board has 14 cups, each player controlling seven.
In this game six seeds are placed in each cup. The player starting first, picks up the seeds from any of her holes and, moving anti-clockwise, places one seed in each hole. If she reaches the end of her cups she goes on the other side of the board. When the player drops her last seed, she takes the seeds from the next cup and continues placing them in this way. If the last seed falls into a cup with an empty cup following it, the player captures the seeds in the cup. That player then continues play from the next cup containing seeds. If the last seed falls into a cup with two empty holes beyond, she captures no seeds and her turn is over. The next player continues play in the same way. If, after having a seed dropped into it, a cup contains four seeds, those become the property of the player who dropped the seed. The round is over when no seeds remain.
Once the first round is over, players take the seeds from their stores and fill as many of their holes as possible with seeds. The winner will have a surplus of seeds, which are kept in his store. The loser of the first round will be unable to fill all of his holes. These unfilled holes are marked as "rubbish holes." In the next round play continues as before, but without the rubbish holes being included and the player who went first in the previous round going second. During the game if a player has enough seeds to fill any of his rubbish holes, they are again used during play. The game is over when a player is unable to fill any cups with six seeds at the end of a round.
