Page:A history of Sanskrit literature (1900), Macdonell, Arthur Anthony.djvu/181

 the Rigveda as to how the game was played. We know, however, from one passage that four dice were used. The Yajurveda mentions a game played with five, each of which has a name. Cheating at play appears in the Rigveda as one of the most frequent of crimes; and one poet speaks of dice as one of the chief sources of sinning against the ordinances of Varuṇa. Hence the word used in the Rigveda for "gamester" (kitava) in classical Sanskrit came to mean "cheat," and a later word for "rogue" (dhūrta) is used as a synonym of "gamester."

Another amusement was dancing, which seems to have been indulged in by men as well as women. But when the sex of the dancers is distinctly referred to, they are nearly always maidens. Thus the Goddess of Dawn is compared to a dancer decked in gay attire. That dancing took place in the open air may be gathered from the line (x. 76, 6), "thick dust arose as from men who dance" (nṛityatām).

Various references in the Rigveda show that even in that early age the Indians were acquainted with different kinds of music. For we find the three main types of percussion, wind, and stringed instruments there represented by the drum (dundubhi), the flute (vāṇa), and the lute (vīṇā). The latter has ever since been the favourite musical instrument of the Indians down to the present day. That the Vedic Indians were fond of instrumental music may be inferred from the statement of a Rishi that the sound of the flute is heard in the abode of Yama, where the blessed dwell. From one of the Sūtras we learn that instrumental music was performed at some religious rites, the vīṇā being played at the sacrifice to the Manes.