Ganjifa

TIQD#22 - The Memory Game of Mythology - Ganjifa

#incredibleindia #theindianquest #ancient #games #ganjifa #dasavatara #mughal #memorygames #sawantwadi #sonepur #bishnupur

The game of dice has created wars, vanished kingdoms and made reality to mythological proportions but how many have survived the annals of history?! Except Chess, not many are in vogue. But a similar game , Ganjifa which was vanishing into oblivion has been revived. Ganjifa or a game of playing cards came to India from Iran through Babar and Akbar modified the game. There are two versions, Mughal and Dasavatara. Both of them requires even suits of 12 cards each. The Hindu version is based on Dasavatara of Vishnu which was started from Sawantwadi by Telugu Brahmins adopted by the ruler. Ganjifa enhances memory as you need to remember the information on every card to win the game. The cards are hand painted and round shaped and nowadays, painted by artists of Sawantwadi, Sonepur, Bishnupur by local Ganjifa artists.