It is significant since India has a history of 6000 years, so all conditions were provided for the great swap of the overall affairs situation throughout all the known sectors. If present-day India was largely divided on linguistic grounds, ancient India was divided into still smaller parts and the villages constituted the largest and the most integrated whole. They also used games to entertain themselves and even get the people in the community together.
Today online gambling is widespread in modern India which offers you different types of traditional casino games – blackjack, roulette, and baccarat, as well as Indian gambles – rummy and Andar Bahar. Learn about changes in gambling games originally played in India from this article below.
The popular choice of games
Some of the activities which Indians participated in during this era included dice games wrestling and betting on animals for races and fights were tame and common leisure activities which people indulged in to make some extra cash or simply demonstrate talent.
1. Dice or Pachisi
Dice games have always been a favourite pastime in India, and many variants have emerged at the forefront. In the first instance, dice were two little sticks of wood, which when placed in the palm were simply rolled on the ground.
Until the 20th century, these were replaced by cowries, which low-income people used as currency. They would also engage in Board and Dice games which are known as Aksa, Chaupar, Pachisi Pasha and so on.
According to the records of Buddhist literature from the year 300 BC, Vibhikta tree nuts were used to produce dice. The highest value of the dice or cowries could go up to 25. Therefore Pachisi was in vogue as described in the folklore of Mahabharata.
2. Animal or Bird Fights
There is evidence that cockfighting was participated as early as the Indus Valley civilisation stage. It gradually percolated down to the other parts of Asia and is to this day exercised in the backwoods of India,” even though the Indian government has proscribed it. Ram fights were also some other staged bouts, through which people “played” by staking for one of the two rams.
3. Chariot/Horse Racing
There existed special races for carrying horses or chariots between 1500 BC and 1000 BC. Sometimes they were also enslaving people to be able to force them to participate. It resembles another form of entertainment that was earlier familiar in the great Roman arenas. But there is considerably less that can be read about wagering on such races online.
4. Wrestling
From ancient times there has been wrestling in India and although most people used it as a reason to be fit most people attended wrestling battles. Politicians would also participate to show their gallantry warriors and soldiers would also participate to show their gallantry expected and betters on their favorite contestants. However, the physical fitness needed for wrestling took form in discipline and the desire to place bets for these ‘fight clubs’ decreased after the coming of the British.
Recalling the first scriptures to which we may turn for insight
Rig Veda: The latter among the Vedas describes gambling and from it, one can infer that prior Indian civilisations were quite highly developed and their social structure was also effectively laid out. In the last part of the 10th book of the Rig Veda, men were encouraged to stop gambling that “will leave the wife sorrowful as a widow” and “mother laments for the son a homeless wanderer”. Further on it is stated that the son may take money and gamble more while instead of playing with dice he should till the land and cultivate corn on his piece of land and his wife should look after their cattle.
Atharvaveda: Yet another perspective to gambling in ancient India emerges from this Hymn XXXV VIII In this hymn God calls Svadha to bless him. There is a mention of deploying one charm in order to accomplish success in gambling and this is through invoking and sudoku with the apsaras.
Nalopakhyanam: The story depicted in the Nalopakhyanam is familiar to everybody and, of course, there are references to gambling with dice. Nala’s gambling instinct makes him lose all his kingdom, chariot and even wealth. He has to walk around after, too much despair.
Ramayana: We have evidence of the practice of gambling in the great epic of Ramayana which should carry a lot of weight. Here, the author Valmiki does not advocate it or name it as the ‘other’, he or she does not label it as a social documentary. But what we have seen is only the mention of Aksa and he himself highlights how the vanquished gamblers appeared more like ‘fishtrees’ bereft of fruits.
Conclusion
Analyzing most of these texts one realizes that most of the ancient Indian authors wrote about online betting being regulated. Some of them spoke of banning it while others said it should be carried out saying it should be continued so long it is controlled by a ‘respected person’ in gambling houses and ‘taxed’.
British brought cricket to India in the 18th century as the first cricket matches were played in Calcutta and in Madras in 1864. They began to appear all over the country by 1867; this was alongside the Public Gambling Act.
