The name of the first version of chess. Chaturanga is a Sanksrit word meaning "four-membered" - when this game was developed in India in the sixth century armies had four components: infantry, cavalry, chariots, and elephants. (See also chatrang.)

Four limbs; a push-up position a few inches off the ground.

Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game which is presumed to be the common ancestor of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi. (See Origins of chess for more information on the ancestry of chess.) Chaturanga has been played since the 6th century or earlier, hence Chaturanga is most commonly believed to be the oldest version of chess.