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A Short History Of Ganjifa Cards Part Two

Kishor Gordhandas

Welcome to the second part of our two part series on the Ganjifa Cards of India. We continue where we left off in Part One with our deck by deck guide through the cards and their history. As in part one this was a collaborative effort with Kishor – supplying the text and the raw material and Richard and Eriana Marcus formatting and preparing the graphics and the lay out. Enjoy!

The NAQSH Gambling Game of Bishnupur and 48 Cards:

Naqsh is a very popular Gambling game played during the festive season between Dassera and Diwali- between September and November months- under the auspices of Shree Lakshmi Devi, the Goddess of Good Fortune. The Game is played with 36, 48, 60, 80 or 96 number of cards. The most famous of all Naqsh are the cards from Bishnupur, West Bengal, played with 48 round cards of large size and a miniature deck, two inches in diameter. This set consists of four suits of twelve identical cards each. The Winning combination of cards in one’s hands must come to a total of 17 or 21 in order to win the stakes. The game is still being played in and around the area near Delhi, especially by Mathur families.

The final decks to examine are some excellent CHADS – Ganjifa cards from Mysore, which originated during the first half of the nineteenth century in many varieties and were created by Krishnaraj III Odeyar (or Wadeyar) of Mysore.

Thirteen different kinds of Chad are described in the ninth chapter called ‘Kautuknidhi’ of a work Shritattwanidhi, compiled under the patronage of Krishnaraj III, the third Raja of Mysore who lived from 1794 to 1868. The Mysore cards rank among the most beautiful of all the Ganjifa Cards of India..

A few of the more noteworthy of these Thirteen Chads are as follows:

• 1)—-Chamundeshwari: 320 cards




• 2)—-Jagadmohan: 360 cards




• 3)—-Navin Dashavatara: 260 cards




• 4)—-Panch Pandava: 216 cards




• 5)—-Ashta Dikapala: 160 cards









• 6)—-Navagraha: 216 cards




• 7)—-Krishnaraj Chad: 72 cards




• 8)—-Navin Rama: 36 cards and others.

The NAVIN RAMA and KRISHNARAJ CHAD mentioned above , which are in my collection, painted by the modern Award winning Ganjifa Artist from Bangalore are classic items, with beautiful Painting.

Whereas, in Dashavatara and Moghul Ganjifa cards there are two court cards, namely Raja and Pradhan or Mantri, and ten numerals in each suit, majority Chads of Mysore have six court cards in the following order:

• Raja on throne or elephant




• Rajni in Palanquin




• Mantri in a Ratha (carriage)




• Senani (general) on horseback




• Padathi or Sevak (foot soldier)




• Dhwaja or (banner).

The number in a Chad varies from four to eighteen. A suit has from nine to eighteen cards of which (with the exception of Krishnaraj Chad and Navin Rama Chad) ten to twelve are numerals of twelve signs of Zodiac and six court cards.

Indian Ganjifa cards are mostly circular in shape. India is the only country in the world to have adopted the round shape for its Standard Playing Cards, although rectangular cards are not uncommon. These are usually handmade and hand painted. Different materials used in card painting for the rich were ivory, Tortoise-shell, Mother of Pearl etc. Nowadays these are made on waste paper or textile fabric, layered, starched and burnished; or paper, cards, palm leaf etc.

Chitrakars are highly skilled persons who are keeping alive the old traditions in a hostile world of machine-made, printed, and plastic objects. The process of making cards is laborious, and is shared by a whole family of Chitrakar, including the men, women, and children.

Most of the Card games and the Playing Cards described above belong to the family of Cards and Card Games derived from Moghul Ganjifa with its eight suits, two court cards and ten numerals. Games with these cards are played with three persons and for multi-suited games, four and five players are admitted. The Naqsh Gambling game mentioned above, has its own rules in which 4, 5, 6 or more persons can play.

Ganjifa is a Trick making game without trumps, in which the number of cards won and not their values count towards victory. The site where it is wished to play the game should always be covered with a pure white and clean square cloth or handkerchief. The game should normally be played by three people, but for multi-suited games, four and five persons are admitted. The deal rotates in an anti clockwise direction. No card games with similar rules are to be found in Europe.

The following rules regarding the Aftab, or the lead card will be of interest. The Aftab Cards or the holder who starts the Ganjifa game- also called Surkhya, are different with different Regions and different Ganjifa sets.

In principle, in Dashavatara Ganjifa games, the lead during the day is with the Raja of Ramachandra Suit, and during the night with the Rajas of Krishna or Balarama suits. In 120- card Bishnupur Dashavatara Ganjifa, however, the Rama Raja opens the game during the day, Narasimha during the twilight, Kurma during rainy day and Matsya during the night. In Moghul Ganjifa of 96 card- games, the lead during the day goes to the holder of Surkh Raja, whereas during the nighttime, Raja of Chandra or Safed starts the game. The rules of the game, booklets and leaflets, are mostly in English, Marathi and Hindi languages. During the last more than twenty years, I have sent out more than 650 sets of Indian Traditional Ganjifa cards here in India and abroad to playing cards Museums, and to several collectors of playing cards.

Today, Ganjifa are being made in Sawantwadi, Maharashtra; Nirmal in Andhra Pradesh; Bishnupur in West Bengal; and in Puri, Bhubaneswar, Raghurajpur, Dindosahi, Parlakhemundi, Sonepur etc. places in Orissa. Unless you give proper instructions and suggestions to the Ganjifa artists for making facsimiles of earlier sets of Ganjifa cards in some Museums or some new traditional themes, they would carry on their work of painting the typical Moghul, or Ath-rangi Ganjifa, and Dashavatara Ganjifa and of Bazar quality.

It is important that the artists get some pushing and encouragement from the Art world, and from the local Government. Indian people must have awareness and knowledge about the Indian Ganjifa, and be ready to purchase a few items, either for collecting, or for the games that are played with Ganjifa cards so that the Ganjifa Art can survive. In recent years, many traditional Ganjifa Artists have died or have become invalid, due to failing eyesight or old age, and although much has been done, without proper pushing and understanding given to the present generation of Artists, Ganjifa Art and the games would fade away sooner.

Illustrated talks, workshops on Ganjifa, exhibitions of Ganjifas, study of articles, books, and catalogues on Ganjifa, and games sessions should be encouraged. All of these can give some kind of understanding, and general knowledge to interested people and students, and there will bound to be some more interest taken in our traditional Ganjifa.

For my part, I have written many articles on Ganjifa cards, which have been published in some well-known Magazines and Newspapers of repute, have attended many workshops on Ganjifa cards, have displayed my Ganjifa Cards at many places with details, for the knowledge of the viewers, and have taught and played some games with the Ganjifa Cards.

I am happy to state, that I have been awarded the “People Of the Year Award’ for the Year 1996, by the Limca Book Of Records, for my efforts to revive the art of Indian Ganjifa Cards! It is hoped that the articles, pictures published on the Internet also make it possible to have the Art of Ganjifa revived, and people get interested in the same.

Note From Editor
Due to space limitations we have not been able to come close to displaying even a fraction of the cards that Kishor supplied to accompany his articles. At times I have also been forced to select one card over another in order to accommodate the demands of layout. Although every effort was made to ensure the relevance of card and surrounding text – sometimes it might be a bit of a stretch. Thus any errors you may spot with regard to a card’s direct relationship to the text surrounding it have nothing to do with Kishor. Rest assured though – they are all authentic Indian Ganjifa Cards – and in that way their relevance is guaranteed.