Gambling, 5000 Years ago in India

A board was used on which marks were made. Cheating was frequent. The word "Kitava" to mean a gamester or cheat was used in the same sense in later classical Sanskrit literature.

The "Lament of the Gambler" is a secular poem in Rigveda (X .34) which according to Prof. A.A. Macdonell is the oldest composition of the kind in existence. He considers it as a most remarkable literary product.

In the poem, the gambler deplores his weakness and inability to throw off the spell dice. Though he is very much aware of the ruin the gambling is bringing to him and his family, he is helpless.

The Lament of the Gambler

Downward they fall, then nimbly leaping upward,
They overpower the man with hands, though handless.
Cast on the board like magic bits of charcoal.
Though cold themselves, they burn the heart to ashes.
It pains the gambler when he sees a woman,
Another’s wife, and their well-ordered house-hold:
He yokes these brown steeds early in the morning,
And, when the fire is low, sinks down an outcaste.
“Play not with dice, but cultivate thy cornfield:
Rejoice in thy goods, deeming them abundant:
There are thy cows, there is thy wife, O gambler,
-This counsel, Savitr the kind gives me

Translatiom by Arthur A. Macdonell: in "A History of Sanskrit Literature", Oxford 1899. Indian Reprint 1986

Later, game of cards might have replaced game of dice. But man's weakness for gambling continues through one form or other. This addiction had ruined fortunes and happiness of countless families over the ages. This poem throws light on one of the earliest vices & remorse accompanying it.