Mahabharata's Dice Game - as Interpreted by Dr. N. P. Bhaduri (no dice needed :D)
Step 1: Take a bowl (the akshavaapana) filled with little balls or seeds of some kind, and a rug (or A4 paper, anything really) called the irina.
Step 2: Call your bet (glaha/graha): this is the interesting part, I'll explain with the levels in Step 4.
Step 3: Take a fistful of seeds from the akshavaapana, and throw it on to the irina.
Step 4: Compute the results, with the help of independent counters.
Level 1: Even/Odd, just count the seeds ON the irina. If your call matches, you won.
Level 2: Modulus of 4. Yugas. 0 for Krita/Satya, 1 for Treta, 2 for Dwapara, and 3 for Kali (Krita is worth the maximum points, some kind of punitive scoring for the others).
Level 3: Add specific colours to the seeds, like modern-day Ludo, then you can apply highly specific bets such as Even Red, Krita Blue, Exactly 12 Green, and Modulus 5 Remainder 3 Yellow.
Level 4: (and beyond): solve 4th degree polynomials in your head, and work your way into calculus.
Cheating: Shakuni insists that this is in fact, NOT cheating, only finesse (Yudhishthira does not agree, and is very mad). The way you'd do it is in clean, fast movements, where you will count the seeds in lightning speed, before the counters are done counting, and then simply remove, or discretely add the relevant seeds from a secret pocket sown into your sleeve to match your initial glaha, and then, this is very important, raise a fevered fist to the heavens and yell: Jitamityeva!
Now I genuinely do not know if this is the true game of Dyuta, but I'd personally love to play it, minus the staking and subsequent losing of younger siblings and life-partners. Play responsibly!
