History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.992
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.992
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Manu IX. 223, Nār. XIX. 1 and Bṛ. (S. B. E. 33 p. 385 verse 3) define *dyūta* (gambling) as that sport which is carried on with inanimate objects such as dice, pieces of leather, ivory and the like and in which there is a stake, while sport carried on with animate objects such as cocks, pigeons, rams, buffaloes and wrestlers is called *samāhvaya*. The attitude of Manu towards gambling was uncompromising. Manu (IX. 221-222, 224-226) calls upon the king to suppress gambling and prize-fighting in his country as they cause the destruction of the State; he states that gambling is open theft and therefore the king should endeavour to put it down and that the king should punish with corporal punishment all those who engage in gambling or who induce or help others to gamble, and that he should banish gamblers from the city because gamblers residing in the country harass wellconducted subjects by their deceitful tricks. Manu IX. 227 (= Udyogaparva 37. 19) states that in ancient times gambling engendered great enmities and therefore a wise man should not resort to it even for amusement or in jest. Kāt. (934) is to the same effect. Yāj. II. 203 and Kauṭ. III. 20⁹⁹⁴ allowed gambling in a central place under State supervision as it led to the detection of thieves. Bṛ.⁹⁹⁵ (S. B. E. 33 p.
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385 verse 1) refers to this divergence of views: 'Gambling that causes loss of truth, purity and wealth was forbidden by Manu, but others allowed it because it led to the detection of thieves, provided it was carried on in the presence of a master of the gambling hall and provided it yielded revenue to the king'. The person who was in charge of the gambling hall which gamblers made their haunt and who supplied the dice and other instruments of gambling was called *sabhika* and the stake or money agreed to be paid by the defeated gambler to the winning gambler was called *paṇa* or *glaha* (Yāj. II. 199). Nār. XIX. 8 provides an optional method viz. instead⁹⁹⁶ of gambling in a hall presided over by a sabhika, gamblers may give the king his share in the stakes, then indulge in gambling openly and if they do so they incur no punishment. Acc. to Yāj. II. 199 as interpreted by Par. M. III. p. 574 and V. P. p. 565 the sabhika was to receive five per cent or 1/20th part when the stake was 100 paṇas or more and 10 per cent or 1/10th when the stake was less than 100 paṇas. Aparārka (p. 802) explains that the sabhika was to receive as his fee five per cent from the victorious gambler and ten per cent from the losing gambler. Nār. XIX. 2 prescribes a flat rate of ten per cent on the stake as the fee of the sabhika, while Kauṭ.⁹⁹⁷ III.
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20 lays down the fee as five per cent and allows the sabhika to charge hire for supplying gambling accessories (such as dice, leather pieces) and for supplying water and accommodation. The sabhika receiving protection from the king was to pay to the king the tax agreed upon by him, was to recover from the defeated gambler the stake (by means of confinement or restraint order) and pay it over to the victor and was to be honest and forbearing⁹⁹⁸ (Yāj. II. 200, Kāt. 940, Nār. XIX. 2). Kāt. (937) states that the sabhika⁹⁹⁹ may give to the winner the money won out of his own pocket and may recover from the losing gambler within three fortnights or at once if there is fear of losing the money. Kāt. (935)¹⁰⁰⁰ holds that if gambling was to be allowed it must be carried on openly with an arch constructed near the door in order that respectable people might not be misled (about its real nature) and it should yield revenue to the king. If the sabhika is unable to make the defeated gambler pay the stake to the victor, the king would make the former pay to the latter provided the gambling was done openly in the presence of the sabhika and a group of gamblers and the king's dues were paid by the sabhika, but not otherwise (Yāj II. 201). Nār. XIX. 6-7 and Yāj. II. 202 provide that when gambling is carried on secretly and without the king's permission or with false dice or other deceitful tricks, the gamblers and the sabhika would not be able to gain their object (i. e.
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recovering bets won or the fee) and would be liable to punishment, viz. branding on the head (with dog's foot and the like) and banishment. Nār. XIX. 6 adds that the banished gamblers would have wreaths of dice tied round their necks. Kāt. (941) and Bṛ. (S. B. E. 33 p. 386 verse 7) state that a person ignorant of gambling should, if defeated in gambling in private, be released from his liability, but one who is an adept in gambling should not be relieved when defeated; but even an adept in gambling if he has lost the whole of his wealth as a stake should not be made to pay the whole.¹⁰⁰¹ In disputes among gamblers, in deciding on victory or in the matter of gain to the winner, and as regards the question of false dice the keeper of the gaming house, if honest, is the final authority¹⁰⁰² (Kāt. 942). Nār. XIX. 4, Yāj. II. 202, Bṛ. (S. B. E. 33 p. 386 verse 6), Kāt. (943) provide that when there is a dispute as to success or defeat the king should appoint gamblers to decide the dispute and gamblers will also be the witnesses in such a dispute (in spite of the rule stated above on p. 335 that gamblers are not competent witnesses), but if the gamblers are alleged to be inimical to the disputants the king may then¹⁰⁰³ himself decide the matter. Yāj. II. 203 extends all the rules about gambling to *samāhvaya*. Bṛ. (S. B. E. 33 p. 386 verse 4) notes that the stake is to be paid by the owner of the animal that is defeated.¹⁰⁰⁴ The S. V. (p.
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487) quotes a text of Viṣṇu and a (Bhāruci's?) gloss thereon that the king gets one-fourth of the stake from each of the owners of the fighting animals and that the animal that is defeated (except a wrestler or a buffalo) is to be made over, whether living or dead, to the owner of the winner. The Mānasollāsa (vol. III. p. 229) contains an elaborate description of a king's amusements by way of wrestling matches, cock-fights &c. The Daśakumāracarita makes frequent reference to gambling. In Ucchvāsa II. (p. 47) we are told that there are 25 kalās on which gambling depends, that legal proceedings between gamblers were decided by reliance on the sabhika and that out of a stake of 16000 *dīnāras*, the successful gambler took half and distributed the other half among the *sabhika* and the denizens of the gambling hall.