matched that neither can best the other.
After the battle has raged for a thousand
years the god Vishnuappears, kills the
crocodile, and restores Indradyumna to
his previous form. The story thus takes
its name, the “release of the elephant
king,” because Indradyumna was freed
from the crocodile’s grasp and the
effects of the curse.
Galta
A village in the state of Rajasthan, a few
miles east of Jaipur, the capital. Galta is
most famous for its connection with the
Bairagi Nagaascetics, renunciant trader-
soldiers who were devotees (bhakta) of
the god Vishnu. According to Bairagi
tradition, in 1756 a conference took
place at Galta in which the different
groups of Bairagi Naga ascetics were
welded into one cohesive military unit
called the Ramanadisor “army of Ram”
under the leadership of a Bairagi named
Balanand. Balanand organized the
Ramanandis into three anisor armies—
the Digambara Ani, Nirvani Ani, and
Nirmohi Ani—which are still the major
Bairagi divisions. According to tradi-
tion, this unification was necessary
because of continual attacks by the
Naga class of the Dashanami Sanyasis,
a competing group of renunciant trader-
soldiers who were devotees of the god
Shiva. The dispute occurred during
the festival Kumbha Mela, ostensibly
over precedence in the bathing (snana)
procession, which was a sign of rela-
tive status. However, an underlying
cause may have been power and con-
trol of an area’s resources.
The exact circumstances under
which the armies of Ram were formed
are difficult to determine. Independent
sources clearly show that the Bairagis
became more cohesively organized dur-
ing the late eighteenth century and
that some of these bairagi bands were
using their mobility, resources, and
power to engage in long-distance trad-
ing. However, the decentralized nature
of asceticlife makes the summary for-
mation of such an army highly unlikely,
unless this was the final fruition of an
already existing trend.Gambling
A practice with a long history in Indian
culture, but that has almost always been
portrayed in a negative light by Hindu
texts. The earliest reference appears in
the Rg Veda, the oldest Hindu religious
text, in a hymn often described as “The
Gambler’s Lament.” The hymn is a gam-
bler’s first-person account of the ways in
which his obsession with gaming ruined
his life. It ends with a warning to the lis-
tener not to be seduced by gambling’s
siren song. Gambling is also negatively
portrayed in the Mahabharata, the later
of the two great Hindu epics. A passion
for gaming is the only fault afflicting
Yudhishthira(the eldest of the five
Pandava brothers who are the epic’s
protagonists), but it brings disastrous
results. In a dice game with the king-
dom’s most skillful player, Shakuni,
Yudhishthira loses his kingdom, his
brothers, and even himself; as a result of
the game, he and his brothers have to go
into exile.
These mythic models mirror the
attitudes toward gambling in Hindu
society. Sober and upright Hindus have
generally avoided games of chance,
since they are not a stable or respectable
way to risk one’s capital or earn a living.
The only time that prudence and
caution can be legitimately disregarded
is on the festival of Diwali, which is
sacred to Lakshmi, the goddess of
wealth and prosperity. Gambling is a
traditional part of the Diwali celebra-
tions, used to pay homage to Lakshmi in
her guise as Lady Luck. Diwali is most
often celebrated in people’s homes, and
thus any gambling will take place with
one’s family and close associates, and
with purely nominal betting. Aside from
Diwali, gambling is strictly proscribed in
polite society, and even on Diwali its dis-
ruptive capacities are strictly contained.Galta