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The Dyuta Sukta (Ode to the Dice): an account of gambling in the Rig Veda (1700–1100 BCE) – Psychiatry in sacred texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2019

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The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 215 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 515
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2019 

The earliest documented account of gambling in the world is in a hymn from the Rig Veda, an ancient Indian Sanskrit text written between 1700 and 1100 BCE. It paints a precise and comprehensive picture of the phenomenology, psychopathology and harms of gambling. Excerpts from this hymn (from the tenth book of the Rig Veda) are given below; here, a gambler addresses the dice that have destroyed his life and begs them to spare him:Reference Singh1

‘The Gambler:

These nuts that once tossed on tall trees in the wind
but now smartly roll over the board, how I love them!
As alluring as a draught of Soma on the mountain,
the lively dice have captured my heart.’

‘Chorus:

Dice, believe me, are barbed: they prick and they trip,
they hurt and torment and cause grievous harm.
To the gambler they are like children's gifts, sweet as honey,
but they turn on the winner in rage and destroy him.’

References

1Singh, NS. HH Wilson's Translation of the Rig Veda Samhita (Enlarged) (2nd edn). Nag Publishers, 1990.Google Scholar

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