THE TEXT · ATHARVAVEDA
Hymns discussed in this article
Begin with the verses shown here. Open the other cited hymns to compare their images and aims.
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VII IN FOCUS
For success with dice
As the thunderbolt always strikes the tree irresistibly, so may I today smite ⌊badh, vadh⌋ the gamblers irresistibly with the dice.
Of the quick, of the slow, of the people that cannot avoid it (?), let the fortune come together from all sides, my winnings in hand.
I praise Agni, who owns good things, with acts of homage; here, attached, may he divide (vi-ci) our winnings; I am borne forward as it were by booty-winning chariots; forward to the right may I further the praise of the Maruts.
May we, with thee as ally, conquer the troop (? vṛt) do thou help upward our side in every conflict; for us, O Indra, make thou wide space, easy-going; do thou break up the virilities of our foes, O bounteous one.
Read the remaining 5 verses of VII.50 (52)
I have won of thee what is scored together (?); I have won also the check (?); as a wolf might shake a sheep, so I shake thy winnings.
Also, a superior player, he wins the advance (?); he divides in time the winnings like a gambler; he who, a god-lover, obstructs not riches—him verily he unites with wealth at pleasure (?).
By kine may we pass over ill-conditioned misery, or by barley over hunger, O much-invoked one, all of us; may we first among kings, unharmed, win riches by [our] stratagems.
My winnings in my right hand, victory in my left is placed; kine-winner may I be, horse-winner, riches-winning, gold-winner.
O ye dice, give [me] fruitful play, like a milking cow; fasten me together with a stream (?) of winnings, as a bow with sinew.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VII.50 (52) at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK III ALSO CITED
For success in trade
Read comparison hymn III.15 (8 verses)
I stir up (cud) the trader Indra; let him come to us, be our forerunner; thrusting [away] the niggard, the waylaying wild animal, let him, having the power (īç), be giver of riches to me.
The many roads, travelled by the gods, that go about (sam-car) between heaven-and-earth—let them enjoy me with milk, with ghee, that dealing (krī) I may get (ā-hṛ) riches.
With fuel, O Agni, with ghee, I, desiring, offer the oblation, in order to energy (táras), to strength;—revering with worship (bráhman), so far as I am able—this divine prayer (dhī́), in order to hundred-fold winning.
This offense (? çaráṇi) of ours mayest thou, O Agni, bear with (mṛṣ), what distant road we have gone. Successful (çuná) for us be bargain and sale; let return-dealing make me fruitful; do ye two enjoy this oblation in concord; successful for us be our going about and rising.
With what riches I practise (car) bargaining, seeking riches with riches, ye gods—let that become more for me, not less; O Agni, put down (ni-sidh) with the oblation the gain-slaying gods.
With what riches I practise bargaining, seeking riches with riches, ye gods—therein let Indra assign me pleasure (? rúci), let Prajāpati, Savitar, Soma, Agni.
Unto thee with homage do we, O priest Vāiçvānara ('for all men'), give praise; do thou watch over our progeny, our selves, our kine, our breaths.
Every day may we bring constantly for thee as for a standing horse, O Jātavedas; rejoicing together with abundance of wealth, with food, may we thy neighbors, O Agni, take no harm.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read III.15 at Wikisource ↗
The first two verses try to command the table
The opening compares a decisive throw to lightning striking a tree. Its speaker wants to overcome other players with the dice, using a violent image for a bounded contest. Verse 2 then asks fortune and winnings to gather from the quick, the slow, and the rest. The language moves from defeating opponents to concentrating all possible gains in the speaker's hands. It is competitive desire expressed without embarrassment.
Whitney marks a word in verse 2 as deeply uncertain and records a different Pāippalāda reading. The exact classification of the other players therefore cannot bear a confident modern theory of gaming strategy. We can still see the structure of the wish: people at the table hold dispersed chances, and the speaker wants the outcome drawn toward himself. The dice are an arena of unequal gain rather than a neutral meditation on abundance.
Borrowed verses widen the scene
Verse 3 invokes Agni and chariots carrying booty. Whitney finds its counterpart in Rigveda V.60.1 and judges that it entered this hymn through a verbal link to winnings. Verse 4 invokes Indra to enlarge the speaker's side in conflict; the commentator reads that conflict as play, although its Rigvedic parallel speaks more broadly. A war image can thus be repurposed at the gaming board.
The fifth verse returns to an opponent's winnings with obscure technical terms, while verse 6 also contains expressions of play that the translator cannot securely explain. These textual seams matter. They show a compiler gathering language of booty, battle, and calculation around dice. The effect is rich, but it is not evidence of a single preserved sequence of actions a modern gambler could reproduce.
The last verses turn wealth into graspable things
Verse 7 asks to cross misery with cattle and hunger with barley, then seeks riches among kings. Verse 8 places winnings in the right hand and victory in the left, before naming cattle, horses, riches, and gold as desired prizes. Verse 9 asks the dice to yield like a milking cow. The movement from abstract luck to food, livestock, and precious metal shows what victory was supposed to support.
Whitney observes that verse 7 has little clear reason to stand here and comes from a Rigvedic context. In the Pāippalāda tradition, the verses of this hymn do not even appear as a single continuous group. A reader should therefore notice how the closing images accumulate value without pretending every line belonged to one original table scene. The collage itself is a fact about the text's ritual imagination.
The game is chance, and the poem knows desire
Later ritual use with other gambling hymns included preparing dice and a smooth place to cast them, according to Whitney's note. That practice is evidence of historical application, not a promise that the text can change probability. The paired benefit, success at dice, accurately describes the speaker's hope. The six-phase member working is a modern symbolic composition and should be understood in that frame.
An expert occult reading can see why the hymn attracts readers: every shift turns uncertainty into a different image of control, from thunderbolt to gathering fortune to full hands. Yet its textual instability and its borrowed battle language keep it from being a simple ancient instruction manual. The most honest reading holds the desire for a favorable throw beside the material reality of uncertain play.
WORKED READING
Worked reading: two hands, many sources
Read VII.50.1 as a contest against other gamblers, then verse 2 as a wish that their dispersed fortune converge on the speaker. Skip to verse 8, where winnings and victory are imagined in opposite hands and translated into cattle, horses, riches, and gold. Now return to verse 3 and Whitney's note that it parallels Rigveda V.60.1. The chariot and booty language does not need to originate at a dice table to serve one here. The comparison reveals a composite hymn: the first-person desire is consistent, while the verses providing its images have different textual histories.