Gambling with Justice: A Juridical Approach to the Game of Dice in the Dyūtaparvan of the Mahābhārata

Abstract

This article draws on Sanskrit jurisprudential literature (Dharmaśāstra) and on Nīlakaṇṭhacaturdhara’s (seventeenth century) Bhāratabhāvadīpa to uncover the motivations behind various characters’ actions before and during the infamous game of dice in the Dyūtaparvan of the Mahābhārata. The Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas employ diverging lines of subtle Dharmaśāstric reasoning in mutual attempts to entrap one another. This dangerous game of juridical brinksmanship, with Dharma as the stake, results in a decisive moral and legal victory for Yudhiṣṭhira—despite his losing the formal game of dice. Consequently, recent literary analyses of this scene emphasizing Dharma’s fundamental opacity are problematized by encouraging a scholarly focus on legal subtlety and strategy.