Talboys Wheeler. Vol. I.--The Vedic Period and the Maha Bharata.


As Mr Wheeler observes, the specialties of Hindoo gambling are
worthy of some attention. The passion for play, which has ever
been the vice of warriors in times of peace, becomes a madness
amidst the lassitude of a tropical climate; and more than one
Hindoo legend has been preserved of Rajas playing together for
days, until the wretched loser has been deprived of
everything he possessed and reduced to the condition of an exile
or a slave.

But gambling amongst the Hindoos does not appear to have been
altogether dependent upon chance. The ancient Hindoo dice, known
by the name of coupun, are almost precisely similar to the modern
dice, being thrown out of a box; but the practice of loading is
plainly alluded to, and some skill seems to have been
occasionally exercised in the rattling of the dice-box. In the
more modern game, known by the name of pasha, the dice are not
cubic, but oblong; and they are thrown from the hand either
direct upon the ground, or against a post or board, which will
break the fall, and render the result more a matter of chance.

The great gambling match of the Hindoo epic was the result of a
conspiracy to ruin Yudhishthira, a successful warrior, the
representative of a mighty family--the Pandavas, who were
incessantly pursued by the envy of the Kauravas, their rivals.
The fortunes of the Pandavas were at the height of human
prosperity; and at this point the universal conception of an
avenging Nemesis that humbles the proud and casts down the