It was Indra’s turn. He was on 18, and would have had the opportunity of a kill on 19. However, not only was his betting line too low to equal Bhuri’s with a good bet, he had not even enough counters left to place the bad bet he would have required. It was at this point that Soma suggested to his son that he allow Indra to place a rather unusual bad bet, by staking the elephant to make up for his lack of counters.
‘My Ashwa-tthaman is worth considerably more than your entire betting line,’ replied Indra. This raised a laugh from the audience: for curiously, the animal in question had exactly the same name as the game’s adjudicator.
‘In that case, King Indra-varman, my son will surely be prepared to hand over all our winnings so far’ — Soma pointed to the pile of counters they had collect
