India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s13.t1.38

c8.s13.t1.38

*WAGER (GLAHA)*—Śakuni opined that dicing, a noble game, was maligned only because of its association with a stake (*aksha-glaha*, Sabhā. 59.8). According to Pāṇini *glaha* is irregularly derived when it relates to the vocabulary of dicing (*Aksheshu glahaḥ*, III.3.70). According to the *Vedic Index*, *glaha* was a later form used in the *Atharvaveda* for *grābha* of the *Ṛigveda* meaning a 'throw' at dice (I.248). This may be its original meaning, but in classical Sanskrit *glaha* always denoted the stake and not the throw (Cf. Yaj. *Smṛiti*, II.199 as rendered by Mitāksharā, *kitava-parikalpita paṇa*; also Sabhā- parva, Dyūta Section where it invariably means a wager). This meaning Pāṇini had in view. Other references in Pāṇini to wager or stake-money are *śatasya vyavaharati*, *śatasya paṇate* (II.3.57), *śatasya dīvyati* (II.3.58), *śatasya pratidīvyati* (II.3.59), all denoting 'he stakes a hundred rupees' in *dyūta*.¹