Vs. Computer
Practice or play at your own pace against an AI opponent — no second player needed.
No sign-up. No ads. Just the game.
The Tamil board game your grandparents played. Now on your phone.
Pallankuzhi is the traditional South Indian mancala-style game played for generations on a carved wooden board of 14 pits. Sow seeds around the board, capture your opponent's, and empty their row before they empty yours. Play against the computer, pass the phone to a friend, or match online with a room code.
Free to play. No account required. No ads, ever.
Features
Everything you need for game night
One app, three ways to play, and the house rules to match how your family has always played.
Two Players
Pass the phone for local multiplayer — the far player's row and name turn to face them, just like swapping seats at a real board.
Play Online
Create or join a match with a short room code — no sign-up or account required.
Four-Seed Capture
The well-known "four seed" house rule, on or off — matching however your family plays it.
Two Coin Styles
Hand-photographed cowrie shells or tamarind seeds — real wood-and-shell textures, not flat icons.
Track Your Stats
Games, captures, and rounds tracked locally, right on your device.
How to Play
Easy to learn, steeped in tradition
Sow, capture, and empty your opponent's row first. The full rules are built right into the app, but here's the gist.
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Objective
Sow and capture seeds until your opponent can no longer fund a single pit of their own — empty their row before they empty yours.
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Sowing
Pick up every seed from one of your own pits and drop them one at a time into each following pit, all the way around the board.
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Capturing
When your last seed lands in an empty pit, look at the pit just after it — if it has seeds, they're swept into your store.
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Winning
At the start of a round, a player who can't afford to fill even one pit has run out of seeds — the other player wins.
One turn, from pickup to capture
The board is one continuous loop of 14 pits — trace the arrows to see how a turn plays out.
Selected pit
Sown into
Landing pit (empty)
Captured pit
- Your row / Opponent's row — 7 pits each. You may only pick up seeds from one of your own pits to start a turn, but sowing passes through both rows.
- Sowing — every seed from the chosen pit is dropped one at a time into each following pit, in one direction, all the way around both rows.
- Continuing to sow — if the very next pit already has seeds when you finish, pick all of them up too and keep going from there.
- Landing pit — where sowing finally stops, because it was empty when you reached it.
- Capture — if the pit just past the landing pit has seeds, they're swept into your store. If it's also empty, no capture happens and it's your opponent's turn.
- Store — the tray above and below the board where each player's won seeds are kept until the next round.
Play your way
Built to feel right, every time you open it
Kuzhi 1 keeps the game simple and the details satisfying — real wood-and-shell photography instead of flat icons, the same sowing rhythm, and the same family-table feel.
- Two hand-photographed coin styles to choose from
- Real carved-wood board art, not flat icons
- Adjustable coin animation speed, sound, and haptics
- A landscape, tablet-style layout built for two people at a table
Ready to play?
Grab a friend, or don't — Kuzhi 1 is ready whenever you are.
Also by UDO Apps
Check it out
Try Dhayam 1 — the classic dice-and-board race game
Race your tokens around the board, cut your opponent, and race Home first. Vs. computer, pass-and-play, or online.