Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t2.321

c4.t2.321

With gambling, the royal amusements completed the fourfold vices which went on undermining through the ages the character and personality of the kings, and made them utterly unworthy of the high position they were holding—merely through an accident of birth. Dice-play—an old Vedic amusement—⁶ was the favourite game of the *Jātaka* kings also.⁷ A gambling scene is vividly described in the *Vidhurapaṇḍita J.*,⁸ which shows some technical knowledge of the game—the throwing of dice on the dice board, the twenty four throws some of which are called *mālikam, sāvatam, bahulam, santi, bhadrā*—⁹ "Let us conquer by fair dealing, and by the absence of violence, and when thou art conquered pay down thy stake"—this is the preliminary talk of the players.¹⁰ Gambling is nowhere depreciated in the *Jātakas*, as far as we can see. As a matter of fact, the *Jātaka* kings play dice without any fear of reprehension at the hands of super-moralists.¹¹