Indian playing cards

Cards fit for a maharaja.

Emperors played them. Poets wrote about them. Painters made every card by hand. This is the story of India's playing cards.

The story in nine stops.

From China to the palaces of India, and on to painters still working today.

Before 1000 · China

The Chinese had playing cards before the year 1000. Nobody saw cards being invented, so the rest of the story is a detective case.
Where the cards came from
About 1500 · Egypt and Syria

A Mamluk pack had four suits. One, from about 1500, already carries the words kanjafah and naqsh.
Naqsh
From 1498 · Calicut and Goa

Portuguese sailors brought cups and swords; later the British brought spades. Indian painters copied them, sometimes round.
When European cards came to India
About 1500 · Iran and India

Cards turn up in both places at the same time: 96 to a pack. A poet wrote 96 love poems, one for every card.
Ganjifa
1527 · Babur's camp

The first Mughal emperor, on the march, still found time to post a pack of cards to a friend.
Ganjifa
Late 1500s · Akbar's court

Twelve lords of horses, elephants, demons and snakes. Then Akbar decided the kings looked too alike, and changed the pack.
Akbar's twelve-suit pack
Probably 1600s · Hindu courts

Ten suits for the ten avatars of Vishnu. One writer even claimed the game could wash away your sins.
Dashavatar Ganjifa
1794–1868 · Mysore

A king who spent his life inventing card games: eighteen suits, a goddess in charge, up to 360 cards a pack.
The Mysore palace games
Today · Odisha

Painters still make ganjappa by hand: the sun and moon for money, flowers for crowns, Lord Jagannatha in the pack.
Ganjappa