Ganjifa

Etymology: The Ganjifa is a derivative of the Persian word Ganj which means money or treasure or Ganjifeh which translates to playing cards.

Origin: This card game has its roots in Persia. It migrated to India under the Mughal rule and was initially called Kreeda Patra. This card game predominantly took root in Mysore city of Karnataka.

Location: Ganjifa cards used to be produced in many parts of India, but now they are primarily produced in Sawantwadi in Maharashtra as Sawantwadi-Gajifa, Bishnupur as Bengal-Ganjifa or Dashavatar tash, Mysore as Mysooru-Ganjifa, and Odisha as Odisha-Ganjifa.

Community: Many places/states produce Ganjifa cards. However, mainly two states that are reviving this craft are Sawantwadi-Ganjifa in Maharashtra and Mysooru-Ganjifa in Mysore.

Relevance: These card games were painted for the entertainment of the aristocratic class like royalties, ministers and allies. This card game thrived in India under the Mughal rule. It was an already dead custom in Persia, but it was revived when the Mughals migrated from Persia to India.

Historical Background: Since several places produce Ganjifa playing cards, Mysooru-Ganjifa and Sawantwadi-Ganjifa actively work towards reviving this craft. Mysooru-Ganjifa did not reach mass as it was heavily patronized by the Royal Mysore family.

Culture and societies: Ganjifa, a royal court game of cards which is an influence of Persia, was very different from the card games we play now. Card decks today have 52 cards, whereas the Ganjifa deck has 96 or 106 cards. Each card is hand-painted with a unique and different design on each of them.

Religious significance: Mysooru-Ganjifa in these contemporary times has resorted to reviving these cards with hand-painted scenarios and figures from the Hindu epics.

Central motifs and their significance: Motifs such as figures of rulers, acrobats, warriors, hunters, musicians, animals, and birds were painted on these royal playing cards. Elephants seemed to appear quite frequently and were the most commonly painted design.

Medium used: For surfaces, raw materials such as ivory, mother of pearl, tortoise shells, paper mache, paper, and stiffened cloth were used. Natural squirrel hair paintbrushes were used to paint with, and pigments derived from vegetables and minerals were used to colour these playing cards.

Style: There were two main styles of Ganjifa cards, the Darbar kalam or royal style and Bazar kalam or bazar style. Both of these styles were produced with different materials. The Darbar kalam was exclusively made for the rulers and their noblemen, whereas the Bazar kalam was made for the common man. Higher quality materials were used for Darbar kalam like the mother of pearls, precious metals and gems, lac wafers, and tortoise shells. The Bazar kalam cards were made out of cardboard pieces, starched clothes, leather, paper, fish scales, and paper mache. Ganjifa cards are usually around 2-12cm in diameter, although a rectangle format for these cards was used as well which was exclusively for higher quality packs. The boxes that these cards were packaged in adorned similar designs as the cards. The designs follow a miniaturesque style of painting.

Process: The technique of making these cards is very knackering. It starts with glueing pieces of cloth or rags together in layers, after which they are stretched and dried. Next, they would prime the fabric with an extract made from tamarind seeds. Later the primed cloth was then coated with lime and burnished with a stone several times till the surface was smooth. The next step called for roundels to be cut to the size of the surface the cloth had to be stuck on, this was measured with the help of templates and scissors.

In between these several steps of preparation, the cloth was dyed multiple times. When the final surface would be ready to be painted, the senior courtesan artist would draw the linework and details of the figures in black, after which the embellishments were added with the enameled metals. Lastly, the cards were coated with lacquer for preservation and were then packed in painted and similarly designed boxes.

Change in the art over time: As time passed, the British invasion brought quite a change in the field of card games. New games such as poker were introduced and cards were machine-printed which was a cheaper option to mass produce, as opposed to hand-painted which was an expensive, tedious, and slower process of producing card decks. These changes were instrumental in the disappearance of Ganjifa.

Sawantwadi Palace is one of two active patronages that are striving to bring back the craft and practice of Ganjifa. They have artisans working not only on producing these playing cards but they are also on applying Ganjifa designs to other products. They plan on bringing this royal card game to digital platforms as well.

1. Chopra, S. (1999). Ganjifa: the playing cards of India in Bharat Kala Bhavan. Varanasi: Bharat Kala Bhavan, Banaras Hindu University.

2. Rudolf Von Leyden, Dummett, M. and And, V. (1982). Ganjifa: the playing cards of India: a general survey, with a catalogue of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection. London: The Museum.