India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s13.t1.32

c8.s13.t1.32

The forms were used to indicate a deviation from the winning throw. The *Pañchikā* game was played with five dice or five ivory pieces. When all these five pieces fall with faces turned upward, or all with faces turned down, then the thrower wins the game. But when the fall is otherwise, he loses it (*Kāśikā* on II.1.10). For example, when four pieces fall alike and one is different, the dicer exclaims: *Akshapari!*, *Śalākāpari!*, *Ekapari!*, i.e. missed by a single *aksha* or by a single *śalākā*. The expression *ekapari* was synonymous with *akshapari* and *śalākāpari* as shown in the *Kāśikā* cited in the *Bhāshya* (*ekatve'ksha-śalākayoḥ*, I.379). If the throw fell amiss by two, it was called *dvi-pari*; if 'by three,' *tripari*; and if 'by four,' *chatushpari*. When all the five pieces fell uniformly the throw was called a winning throw of which the technical name was *Kṛita*. The name for the losing throw was *Kali*. According to the *Dhammapada* a deceitful player (*kitavo saṭho*) tries to conceal his losing or *kali* throw (*verse 252*). In the *Bhūridatta-Jātaka-Vatthu*, *kali* and *kṛita* are contrasted (*Kalī hi dhīrānaṁ kaṭam mugānaṁ*, 'Loss to the wise, a gain to the fool,' *J.R.A.S.*, 1892, p. 127; also *Jāt.* VI.228). In the *Chhāndogya Upanishad* (IV.1.4) *kṛita* is the winning throw. In the Sabhāparva (52.13) Śakuni is described by Vidura as *kṛita-hasta*, *i.e.* one who takes a winning throw. Pāṇini also refers to these two kinds of throws: