The Bharata 600 BC box seen at an angle: a gold-foil title over a painting of an archer looking across a river at a hilltop fort and an army, with small icons for ages 14+, 2–8 players and 30–90 minutes — The box, with its gold-foil title and painted coverPhoto: GoIndia Games

Four adults sit on the floor around a wooden coffee table with the game set up; two of them high-five across the board, and the box and rulebook lie on the floor beside them — Four friends around the coffee tablePhoto: GoIndia Games

A four-player game set up on a white table: the large map of the Indian subcontinent in the middle, a player tracker board with wooden pegs on each side, card decks, a tray of coins, and wooden armies and forts in red, yellow, green and black — Set up for four: the map, a tracker board for each player, cards and the wooden piecesPhoto: GoIndia Games

Close-up of the map of northern and central India with tall wooden army pieces and round wooden forts in red, yellow, green and black spread across the regions, plus orange question-mark tokens and resource symbols — The hand-turned Channapatna wooden armies and forts on the mapPhoto: GoIndia Games

A player holds the Psychic ability card above her tracker board, which has orange wooden pegs and two army cards on it, with other players' boards and the map beside her — Mid-game: checking an ability card over a player's tracker boardPhoto: GoIndia Games

White embossed coins and a tray of round tokens on the southern tip of the map by the Bay of Bengal, with four illustrated personality cards (Daredevil, Conqueror, Leader, Influencer) and the victory-point prize deck — Coins, personality cards and the victory-point prize deckPhoto: GoIndia Games

Advanced-game parts on a white table: an open tray of round illustrated event tokens, a Cyclone event card, the back of an event card, and the text sides of the Fearless and Clever ability cards — Advanced-game extras: event tokens, event cards and ability cardsPhoto: GoIndia Games

Nine illustrated ability cards with red borders, each named for a trait: Perceptive, Ingenious, Fearless, Generous, Clever, Vengeful, Resilient, Versatile and Psychic — Ability cards from the Advanced gamePhoto: GoIndia Games

A laughing man in a striped T-shirt sits cross-legged and reaches across the coffee table to move a wooden piece on the map — Moving an army across the mapPhoto: GoIndia Games

A woman in a striped top smiles as she looks at a card, with trays of tokens and green wooden pieces on the table in front of her — Weighing up a cardPhoto: GoIndia Games

Video

Strategy game · Indian edition available

Bharata 600 BC

Build an ancient Indian kingdom; dice-free battles, handmade Channapatna pieces.

Territory control Dice rolling

2–4best with 3-4
30–90 minper game
About 10 minto set up
14+years
Medium
Somereading

The Indian edition, on Amazon.in

Made in India

Buy on Amazon.in

We matched this listing to the edition made and sold in India. Amazon shows today's price, the seller and delivery.

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The game in a nutshell

Bharata 600 BC is an Indian-made strategy board game in which 2 to 4 players each rule one of the great kingdoms of ancient India, gathering iron, wood and food, raising armies and taking over regions on a large map. It suits teenagers and adults who enjoy Catan-style planning but want more control over fights. The box holds two versions: a Basic game of about 30 to 60 minutes and a longer Advanced game with floods, disease and riots.

Is Bharata 600 BC right for you?

Great if

Families with teenagers who have outgrown Ludo and Business and want a proper strategy game
Friends who like Catan but want battles decided by planning rather than dice
History lovers: the map shows the 16 Mahajanapadas of around 600 BC, and the coins are modelled on punch-marked coins from that period
A gift that looks good on the shelf, with hand-made Channapatna wooden pieces and a gold-foil cover

Skip it if

You want something to play quickly after dinner; even the Basic game can take an hour
Your group dislikes direct conflict, because armies attack each other and take each other's regions
You want a cheap first game; it costs more than most family games

THE BOARDGAMES.IN TAKE

Our ratings

How hard to learnMedium

3 / 5

Luck or skillLuck and skill

LuckSkill

Set-up~10 min

ReadingSome

Behind the ratings

How hard to learnThe Basic game sits around Catan's level or a little lighter. One reviewer taught it in about 10 minutes, and the publisher-sponsored video covers it in about 11. The Advanced game adds events, ability cards and hidden tokens, but reviewers say it adds variety more than rules.

Luck or skillThere are no dice, and battles are planned with hidden army cards. But resource cards help some players more than others, and army cards are drawn unseen. One independent reviewer felt this luck, and uneven starting positions, outweighed the planning.

Set-up timeThe pieces come sorted in small card trays, so setting up is mostly putting the trays out, placing each capital, fort and two armies on the map, and dealing tracker boards and cards. Reviewers call it quick and easy. Allow longer for the first game, and a few more minutes for the Advanced game's event and hidden tokens. The publisher gives no setup time, so this is our estimate.

Reading neededRules and cards are in English. Ability and event cards have short text, and a Hindi how-to-play video is available.

Difficulty uses our 1–5 scale: 1 is UNO or Connect 4, 3 is Catan, 5 is a heavy strategy game. These describe the experience, not an overall score.

How Bharata 600 BC plays

Each player rules one of the Mahajanapadas, the great kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent around 600 BC. You start with a capital city guarded by a fort, two armies, and markers on your player board that track your victory points and your stocks of iron, wood and food.

Time to teach: about 15 minutes for the Basic version.
Reading and language: The box, rulebook and cards are in English, so at least one person should be comfortable reading English rules and card text. The publisher's FAQ links how-to-play videos in both English and Hindi, which helps if some players at the table prefer Hindi.

Bharata 600 BC – How to Play · Chai & Games (made with GoIndia Games)

If this creator doesn’t allow embedded playback, watch on YouTube ↗.

Your turn, step by step

1
Collect
Turn over a resource card. Every player takes what it shows, such as two wood each, or double the resource you have least of.
2
Spend
Swap iron, wood and food for coins, sell trade goods if you hold a sea port, and buy army cards for 2 coins each. You draw them unseen, so you don't know how strong they are until you have them.
3
Act
Take two actions, or three if you pay a coin: march an army to a neighbouring region, take over an empty region by paying its cost, or attack a rival. In a battle both sides secretly pick army cards and show them together; the defender adds the region's strength and the higher total wins.
4
Win
Regions you hold are worth points, and you lose them if the region is taken. You also score for goals such as holding four ports or winning three battles. The first to 20 points wins, or 25 with two players.

The full explanation: how a game of Bharata 600 BC goes

A turn starts with a resource card that gives every player some supplies. You can then sell goods for coins, sell trade goods if you hold a port, and buy army cards. After that you take two free actions, and can pay a coin for each extra one: march an army into a neighbouring region, take over a region, collect a region's resources, or attack a rival.

Battles use no dice. The attacker and the defender each secretly commit army cards from the army involved and reveal them together, and the defender adds the strength printed on the region. The higher total wins the region and whatever it holds. An army that loses all its cards is removed and comes back at its capital.

The first player to reach 20 victory points wins, or 25 in a two-player game. Points come from conquering regions and from completing victory-point goals. The Advanced version adds event cards that place floods, disease and riots on the map, hidden tokens to uncover and special ability cards, which makes games longer and less predictable.

The box is big: more than 550 components, including 64 wooden pieces hand-made by Channapatna craftspeople and coloured with natural dyes, a large illustrated map of ancient India, and separate components for the Basic and Advanced versions.

What's in the box

1Game board
large illustrated map of the Indian subcontinent around 600 BC
1Rulebook
English
4Quick-start cards
4Player tracker boards
peg tracks for victory points, iron, wood and food, and spaces for your two armies' cards
16Personality cards
32Resource modifier cards
80Army cards
80Coins
with markings based on punch-marked coins of the period
30Trade objects
5VP condition prize cards
8Wooden armies
hand-made in Channapatna; two per player
40Wooden forts
hand-made in Channapatna
16Wooden tracker pegs
hand-made in Channapatna; four per player
36Ability cards
Advanced game
16Ability action completion tokens
Advanced game
70Event cards
Advanced game
88Event tokens
Advanced game
25Hidden tokens
Advanced game

Box: 30.5 × 24.5 × 7 cm, 2.44 kg. Handy to know for gifting and travel.

Counts are printed on the back of the box (photo g02, from the publisher) and match an Indian listing sold by GoIndia Games. That makes 552 pieces plus the box, including 64 wooden pieces. The last five items are used only in the Advanced game. Details in brackets come from the box photos and reviews.

Where to buy

Amazon.inIndian edition

The Indian edition, on Amazon.in

We matched this listing to the edition made and sold in India. Amazon shows today's price, the seller and delivery.

Buy on Amazon.in

Opens Amazon.in in a new tab.

Bharata 600 BC is designed, published and manufactured in India by GoIndia Games, so there is no imported version to compare. Our Amazon.in link goes to GoIndia Games' own edition: the base box, with both the Basic and Advanced versions.

How to make sure you get a genuine copyA little care before you click.

The box should carry the GoIndia Games name and the gold-foil BHARATA 600 BC title.
The genuine game uses wooden pieces made in Channapatna (64 of them), not plastic pawns.
Inside there should be two sets of components, one for the Basic and one for the Advanced version, and more than 550 pieces in all.
Be wary of a new copy that costs a fraction of the usual price, especially from an unknown seller; it deserves a second look.
Check that the listing names GoIndia Games as the brand; the Amazon.in listing we link to has GoIndia Games in its title.

We link to one Amazon.in listing that we've checked against the maker's own information. We don't show prices: Amazon shows today's price, the seller and delivery. Paid link. We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.

What reviewers and players say

Reviewers mostly praise how Bharata 600 BC looks and feels: the hand-made Channapatna wooden pieces, the big map of ancient India and the plastic-free box come up again and again, and the Basic rules are said to be quick to learn. The most detailed independent review found that luck in the cards and uneven starting kingdoms spoiled it for his group. He also points out that playing with more than four people means playing in pairs. Coverage is thin and mostly from the 2020–21 launch, and one of the main video reviews was sponsored by the publisher.

What people love

The production: hand-turned Channapatna wooden armies and forts, a large illustrated map and a box with almost no plastic.
The setting: you rule one of the 16 Mahajanapadas, with coins based on punch-marked coins from the period, which history lovers enjoy.
Quick to learn and quick turns. The Basic game suits newcomers, and one reviewer's group played a Basic and an Advanced game in one evening, taking about an hour each.
No dice in battles, and the Advanced game's ability cards and events add more choices once you know the basics.

Common complaints

Luck still matters: resource cards can help some players far more than others, and army cards are drawn unseen, so one player may hold strong cards while another holds weak ones.
Starting kingdoms aren't equal. Some start next to ports and rich regions, so the others have to gang up on them early.
'2–8 players' on the box means teams of two sharing a kingdom once you have more than four players, not eight separate kingdoms.

Based on 5 reviews and discussions

Review Bharata 600BC (Tomasz and Sharon, December 2020) · BoardGamesWithCouple
Video Bharata 600 BC - Regelübersicht und Meinung (rules overview and opinion, in German, December 2025) · Tilestyle (YouTube)
Video Bharata 600 BC - Unboxing & Review (December 2020) · Chai & Games (YouTube)
Press The designers bringing Indian culture into the world of board games (July 2021) · The National
Review A slice of Indian history on a board game! (Karthik S, December 2020) · Beast of Traal

Summarised in our own words from the sources above. We don't use Amazon reviews or ratings.

More like Bharata 600 BC

Our picks if Bharata 600 BC isn't quite right

Feature	Bharata 600 BC	Catan	SHASN
Players	2–4	3–4	3–5
Best with	3-4	4	4
Play time	30–90 min	60–90 min	2–4 hrs
Age	14+	10+	14+
Rules	Medium	Medium	Involved
Indian edition	Yes	Yes	Yes
Why look at it	This page	Also about gathering resources and growing your territory, with more trading and less fighting	Another Indian-designed strategy game about winning control of regions, longer and more argumentative

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Also worth a look (not in our catalogue yet): Risk – The classic conquer-the-map game; Bharata swaps Risk's dice battles for hidden army cards.

Questions people ask about Bharata 600 BC

Is Bharata 600 BC made in India?

Yes. GoIndia Games, a Bengaluru company, designs and publishes it and says all its products are 100% made in India. The 64 wooden pieces are hand-made by Channapatna craftspeople and coloured with natural dyes.

Can two people play Bharata 600 BC?

Yes. The box is for 2 to 4 players, and in a two-player game you need 25 victory points to win instead of 20. The publisher also says the game can be extended to 8 players.

Can 8 people play Bharata 600 BC?

Yes, but in teams. The box has four kingdoms, so with five to eight people, players pair up and share one kingdom's board and pieces. With three or four teams the target is 20 points; with two teams it's 25.

What age is Bharata 600 BC suitable for?

The box says 14 and up. The publisher adds that customers report it working with children of about 11, and sometimes 8, which is most realistic with the Basic version and an adult who knows the rules.

Does Bharata 600 BC use dice?

No. Battles are settled with army cards that both sides reveal at the same time, and the defender gets a bonus from the region. Fights depend on how you have built and spent your armies rather than on a lucky roll.

Game facts

Designed by: Cristina Maiorescu, Sumit Sinha
Publisher: GoIndia Games (Terrals Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru)
In India: GoIndia Games (the publisher itself)
First published: 2020
Players: 2–4 kingdoms; with 5–8 people, players pair up and share a kingdom
Barcode: 0793591682525
Language: Some English – The box, rulebook and cards are in English, so at least one person should be comfortable reading English rules and card text. The publisher's FAQ links how-to-play videos in both English and Hindi, which helps if some players at the table prefer Hindi.
Box size and weight: 30.5 × 24.5 × 7 cm, 2.44 kg

Sources & photo creditsThe references behind this guide.

Facts on this page come from the publisher, the Indian maker or distributor, and the sources below. Photos are credited under each one.