MAARKANDEYA presents MAHAABHAARATHAM

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"After praying to Naaraayana, Nara, Sarasvathi and Vyaasa, then one should read the Jayam."

DEDICATED TO MY DEAR NIECE VYSHNAVI KRISHNA

DICE-GAME

Dice game was very popular in ancient India. Today too, it was no less popular but it is being played in a different form . ( Dyootham is the word used for it in Samskritham , meaning ' gambling ' .)

A dice is a cubic piece with different numbers on each of its six faces, from one to six, the total of the numbers on opposite facets totalling to seven. Thus, if three non-opposite faces have numbers 1, 2 and 3 on them, their corresponding opposite faces should have the numbers 6, 5 and 4 respectively . Or, in place of numbers, an equal number of spots are painted on the faces to help the illiterate people . But, this is in case of a standard cubic dice that is most widely used . There were also other types of dice in use in olden days . A rectangular dice has numbers from 1 to 4 on its four long faces.

The way a dice game was played changed with the dice used in the game. In any dice game , the players would use a set of dice and a chart or a board on which the pieces of each player were placed in the starting positions . Dice were thrown by the players in turn. The number turned up was his score . The player then advanced his pieces according to the score . The player whose pieces reached the target square first would be the winner . This was the general form of dice game that was in vouge in olden days .

We cannot be sure of which form of the dice game the Paandavas and the Kouravas adopted . Though many mentions were made of dice and the game in the book , the details of the game rules were not given. But the usage of the words Kritha, Thretha Dvaapara and Kali for the dice indicated that they might have used a set of four dice with numbers or ( spots ) from 1 to 4 on each of them . The names mentioned are the names of the four Indian mythological ages from the first to the fourth .

Dice game was very popular among the people in olden days like the cards game nowadays. People from the common class to the princely class patronised it, the stakes varying with their financial affordability . There were gambling rooms permited by the state and run by the licensed and tax paying club runners. Chaanakya's book on state administration Artha-shaasthra clearly mentioned such clubs . A Samskritham play of 2000 years ago, Mrichchakatikam has dice game in its minor theme .

Also, according to the scholars and smrithis, a king should play such game ( dyootham ), though not necessarily a dice game , with his near and dear , after he had performed a Raajasooya sacrifice . This rule might have some connection to the chronological proximity of Yudhishthira's Raajasooya and his dice game with the Kouravas .
However, no accurate details could be extracted from the Mahaabhaaratham text about the system of dice game , especially the form that was adopted in the Kourava hall. But, the tradition says that Shakuni threw the dice for Duryodhana and that Shakuni had some mystical dice with him that always favoured him . Thus the Paandavas continuously lost the stakes . Yudhishthira was a connoisseur of the game . So was Viraata . Another ancient king Nala too was a sufferer of undesirable results of this game .

But , the moral science teachers counted it among the seven destructive addictions that were prohibitted for a person of good conduct . The seven addictions are ,

  1. Womanizing
  2. Wine
  3. Gambling
  4. hunting
  5. Foultounguedness
  6. Giving unjustly harsh punishments
  7. Extravagance

"After praying to Naaraayana, Nara, Sarasvathi and Vyaasa, then one should read the Jayam."

DEDICATED TO MY DEAR NIECE VYSHNAVI KRISHNA