The Dashavtar Ganjifa, an ancient card game which wasintroduced in the 17th and 18th century was kept alive by a royal family inSawantwadi and Maharashtra.
The royal family of Bhonsles hired a 90-year-old PundalikChitari, the only master craftsman left in 1959 and learnt the art of theancient card from him for over two years. They then went on to teach the art tothree other artisans. This is how the Bhosle family kept the identity of theancient art in Sawantwadi and Maharashtra.
Ganjifa, an ancient game played with hand-made andcolourfully painted pack of 120 cards depicting mythological characters,including the 10 incarnations of Vishnu, got a shot in the arm when a royalcouple launched the “Sawantwadi Lacquerware” in 1972.
Through trial and error method they experimented with newmethods and diversified their range of cards.
Although their circular Dashavtar cards are thefastest-selling, they also offer sets inspired by alphabets, Tarot, zodiacsigns, and Chang Kanchan or the Mughal Ganjifa that carries images of kings.The card sets that are available at Contemporary Arts and Crafts are made frompaper unlike in ancient times when they were carved from ivory, tortoise shellsand palm leaves.
The Ganjifa cards are believed to have been introduced inIndia by the Mughal emperors in the 16thcentury. The word “Ganjifa” comes from a Persian word meaning treasure. Legendhas it that in 1527, Emperor Babar gifted Ganjifa cards to his friend in Sindh.The Mughal Ganjifa cards soon became a popular card game and the cards weremodified to reflect stories from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Dashavtaras.
It was supposed to purify you of your sins since you wereuttering names of Gods. They were an integral part of a Brahmin bride'strousseau. In India, the cards were made in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa,Bengal, Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh.
At Sawantwadi Lacquerware, the card-making process is one ofassembly line production, with one person dedicated to each task. So, while oneartisan cuts the card paper, a second etches out the outline and borders, whilea third fills in colours and lacquers it. They make five packs of 120 cards ata time, and it takes the team of three artisans and 20 part-time artists twoweeks to do so. Each piece is unlike another.
For her efforts in preserving local crafts, the queen haswon the Master Craftsmen award from the Maharashtra government for what'sconsidered a collector's item in the West. The Sawantwadi Ganjifa cards enjoy aplace at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Prince of Wales museumin Mumbai and museums in the US and Germany.
