Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.49

v1.c3.49

There is no reason to doubt that the game as played in the Rigveda was based on the same principle, though the details must remain doubtful. The number of dice used was certainly large,³⁰ and the reference to throwing fours,³¹ and losing by one, points to the use of the Kṛta as the winning throw. The Atharvaveda,³² on the other hand, possibly knew of the Kali as the winning throw. In one respect the ordinary game must have differed from the ritual game. In the latter the players merely pick out the number of dice required—no doubt to avoid ominous errors, such as must have happened if a real game had been played. In the secular game the dice were thrown,³³ perhaps on the principle suggested by Lüders:³⁴ the one throwing a certain number on the place of playing, and the other then throwing a number to make up with those already thrown a multiple of four or five. This theory, at any rate, accounts for the later stress laid on the power of computation in a player, as in the Nala.