RIDDLE NO. 13
THE RIDDLE OF THE AHIMSA
Any one who compares the habits and social practices of the latterday Hindus with those of the Ancient Aryans he will find a tremendous change almost amounting to a social revolution.
The Aryans were a race of gamblers. Gambling was developed to science in very early days of the Aryan Civilization so much so that they had even devised certain technical terms. The Hindus used the words Krita, Treta, Dwapara and Kali as the names of the four Yugas or periods into which historical times are divided. As a matter of fact originally these are the names of the dices used by the Aryans at gambling . The luckiest dice was called Krita and the unluckiest was called Kali. Treta and Dwapara were intermediate between them. Not only was gambling well developed among the ancient Aryans but the stakes were very high. Gambling with high money stakes have been known elsewhere. But they are nothing as compared with those which are known to have been offered by the Aryans. Kingdoms and even their wives were offered by them as stakes at gambling. King Nala staked his kingdom and lost it. The Pandavas went much beyond. They not only staked their kingdom they also staked their wife Draupadi and lost both. Among the Aryans gambling was not the game of the rich. It was a vice of the many. So widespread was gambling among the Ancient Aryans that the burden of all the writers of the Dharma Sutras (Shastras ?) was to impress upon the King the urgency of controlling it by State Authorities under stringent laws.
The original Table of Contents shows Riddle No. 13 as ‘How the Brahmins who were once cow-killers became the worshippers of the Cow ?’ This chapter is not found in the papers. However, few pages entitled ‘Riddle of Ahimsa’ have been found. The Riddle has been placed here as it seems to deal with the same topic. This chapter consisting of 10 typed pages is obviously incomplete as the remaining text is missing.—Ed.