MATH or MAGIC!

In ancient history, there is the exemplary lesson of how a great king, his mind possessed by Kali (the demoniac personality of this age of quarrel and decadence), was driven to ruin by gambling and how he managed to regain control of his mind and senses, force Kali out of his body, and regained his wealth and kingdom with the help of Vedic mathematics.

This incident is recorded in the celebrated itihasa (Vedic history), the Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Chapters 52-79 entitled Nalopakhyana Parva.

It is a beautiful story, filled with romance and tragedy before ultimate triumph. The story of the great king Nala of the Nishadas and his chaste wife Damayanti, who were cruelly separated by circumstances after Nala comes under the sway of Kali and loses his wealth and kingdom when challenged to a gambling match of dice by his younger brother Pushkara.

Gambling is a cardinal sin which destroys one of the four pillars of religiosity, truthfulness. However according to kshatriya (military) code of honour, it is incumbent upon a king to accept a challenge from a rival, be it a battle or a competition. Apart from combat, the kshatriyas are generally fond of competitive sports and games of skill and strategy. Their recreations in this category include caturanga (the original complex form of chess from which the modern simplified version is derived) and dice. From this story, it seems that the original game of dice is not based on chance alone, there is also mathematical skill and strategy involved (as will be seen as the story unfolds).

Nala acquires this skill through the help of two friends he encounters in the course of his wanderings, the serpent king Karkotaka, who injects poison into his body to torment Kali dwelling inside, and then directs Nala to the expert mathematician and king, Rituparna, who imparts to him higher mathematical knowledge. Armed with this knowledge, Nala, casts off wretched Kali, re-unites with his wife Damayanti and children, returns to his kingdom, challenges Pushkara to a return match and wins back all that he had lost.

This ancient history of how king Nala lost everything to dice, literally even the cloth on his back, and clawed back successfully after mastering the science of numbers and shrugging off Kali's grip over his mental faculties, is recalled and narrated within the Mahabharata by the merciful rishi Vrihadasva to inspire another great king who had fallen into dire circumstances in an almost similar way many generations later, king Yudhishthira of the Pandavas.

The virtuous king Yudhishthira was then in exile in the forest with his brothers and chaste wife Draupadi, having lost his kingdom to his evil cousins headed by Duryodhana by deception after being similarly challenged to gamble with dice.

Just before the rishi Vrihadasva arrives on the forest scene, king Yudhishthira had just managed to pacify one of his brothers, mighty Bhimasena, who had begged permission to march back to the capital city of Hastinapura (Delhi) to destroy the Kauravas and regain their kingdom by force. Bhima had quoted the Vedic injunction, that the deceitful may be slain by deceit, if necessary. However king Yudhishthira implored his brother to wait until the 13-year term of their exile had passed: "Without the help of fraud wilt thou kill the wicked Duryodhana and his allies."

But one argument that Bhima had put forward worried king Yudhishthira, that even if they successfully completed the period of exile and returned, what's there to stop the evil Kauravas from challenging him again to another game of dice and sending them all back into exile? So he was relieved to see the great rishi approaching, and after properly receiving him, and offering him seat and refreshments, confided to him: "O Holy One, summoned by cunning gamblers skilled at dice, I have been deprived of wealth and kingdom by gambling. I am not an adept at dice and am unaquainted with deceit. Sinful men, by unfair means, vanquished me in play. They even brought into the public assembly my wife, dearer to me than life itself. Defeating me a second time, they have sent me to distressful exile in this great forest."

To lift up the spirits of the greatly virtuous but now crestfallen king, the wise Vrihadasva decided to narrate to him the inspiring history of Nala and Damayanti.