Playing cards is a common interest around Indian sub-continent. In Hindi, the official dialect of India, cards are “Taash”. Numerous mainstream card games in India incorporate Rummy, Bluff, Twenty nine, Rang (Court Piece), Bridge and so on. Nonetheless, it is extremely intriguing to know the beginning of card games in India.
Card games acquainted with India in the sixteenth century by the Mughal rulers from Central Asia. Those enamored with the amusement “Ganjifa”. The name “Ganjifa” came from the Persian word for playing cards, ‘ganjifeh’. The principal references to the diversion found in the life story of Babur. The originator of the Mughal line in India.
Ganjifa
“Ganjifa” first presented as a Court game and played with extravagant sets of cards. This made with different ivory or tortoise shell and finished with different valuable stones. It just considerably later that the amusement spread to the general individuals of the nation, when economical cards made and sold in the market. These cards for the most part produced using palm leaf or wood.
There’s another tale clarifying the making of playing cards in India. It associates cards with sovereignty and female fatigue inside King’s chambers. As indicated by a Hindu legend, the spouse of an Indian King exhausted and bothered by his disturbing tendency for continually pulling hair from his whiskers. With a specific end goal to keep his hands involved and far from his whiskers and to engage herself and her better half, the spouse considered the possibility of the game which utilized cards.
The shape of cards
Dissimilar to the rectangular state of the cards utilized as a part of China and Korea, Indian cards had a round shape. They were made of ivory, paper, wood, cotton fiber, palm leaves and so on. Their breadth ran from 1 ½ to 4 ½ inches. Cards were spoken to by ten suits, each made out of ten numeric and two court cards. Warriors, elephants, ships, stallions, devils, ladies and so forth can be found among the cards suits. The design, style and the course of action of the card sets were constantly unique, contingent upon the craftsman who made the cards. For instance, the “Dashavatara” deck of Ganjifa had diverse outlines in view of ten distinct symbols of Lord Vishnu.
Happy playing!