GANJIFA

MYSORE PAINTING
 INTRODUCTION
INDEX

HISTORY
TOOLS
PROCESS
FAMOUS PERSONALITY
ARTISAN
 INTRODUCTION

Mysore Ganjifa holding major part in Citrasutra, the art of

painting. It is deeply devoted to the ancient techniques of
depicting mythological themes with minute, intricate and
detailed symbolism in the miniature style of painting. Utilizing the
rich natural resources of flowers, leaves, sandalwood and
tamarind paste, as prescribed in the ancient Indian texts to give
colour and form to his miniatures, it is also lacquers the paintings
to preserve them for posterity.

In Mysore, this game was known as "God's play" or Chadd and in

many other names, because the cards carried Gods' images on
one side, the Gods from the Hindu pantheon. Here Chadd means
to ascend. That is ascending numbers as from 1 to 10 to any
number. It is a classical Kannada word (Hale Kannada).

Playing cards, call it Ganjifa, Chadd or whatever, of varying

shapes and sizes incorporating the ancient art form, are still made
in Mysore district or rather in Mysore and some adjoining pockets
of our State.

The Ganjifa is said to have originated in Persia, but introduced in

India by Mughals in the 15th century.

The Ganjifa creation of Mysore (Karnataka) is practiced in city at

Vidyaranyapuram, Gokulam, Ashoka Road in Mysore,
Srirangapatna in Mandya district and in Bangalore at Ulsoor,
Srinagar, Hanumanthanagar, Vijayanagar, Jayanagar and HAL
post.
 HISTORY

the game of cards (Ganjifa) found as much favour with Kings,

courtiers and general masses as the Pachisi (Dice) and Chess. The
Indian Ganjifa cards are extremely colourful and painted in such a
wide variety that one tends to hold one's breath. General
assumption is that the cards were brought to India by Mughal
emperors early in the sixteenth century. Once established, the card
spread to most regions of India either in their original form known as
Mughal Ganjifa, or in its slightly later Hindu form known as
Dashavatara Ganjifa.

Ganjifa is a word signifyng playing cards or card games in India and

Nepal, Iran, some Arab countries and Turkey.

King Akbar made some alterations in the cards and invented a new
game of 96 cards with eight suits of 12 cards each, which is now
known as Mughal Ganjifa. The eight suits of Mughal Ganjifa packs
are surprisingly constant from the beginning of the 16th century to
the present day. The Hindustan Ganjifa themes must have
contributed greatly to the spread and popularity of the games.
Dashavatara Ganjifa with the Avataras as incarnates of Shri Vishnu
was the most popular card game.

In Maharashtra and Orissa, it was a widespread Brahmi pastime. Old

people are still seen playing Dashavatara Ganjifa near Puri Temples,
mainly 16 suited 192-card game. A later Brahmin rationalisation of
this pursuit was a notion that performance of the game is pleasing
to the God. Navagraha (Nine planets) 108 cards Ganjifa originally
from Sawantawadi and later on from Chikiti, Parlakhemundi and
Raghurajpur, Orissa's 96 cards Ashta-Dikpala Ganjifa made from
Chikiti Artist and Bangalore Artist in Mysore style.
 HISTORY CONT.

Naqsh is a very popular gambling during the festival season between

Dasara and Diwali between Sept. and Nov., under the auspices of Sri
Lakshmi Devi, the Goddess of Wealth. The game is played with 36, 48, 60, 80,
96 number of cards.

The Mysore playing Cards or Chadd are the games that are distinct by their
complicated structure using numerous suits.

The credit for making Ganjifa card game in its various forms should go to Sri
Krishnaraja Wadiyar - III more popularly known as Mummadi Krishnaraja
Wadiyar, the then Maharaja of Mysore. He created Ganjifa cards by using
shlokas and also the images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in various
colours. Krishnaraja Wadiyar - III had created 18 Ganjifa games, each with
its own beauty.

They are:

1. Chamundeshwari 320 bunch of leaves

2. Jaganmohan 360 bunch of leaves
3. Mahisha Mardhana 216 bunch of leaves
4. Naveena (Modern) Dashavatara 240 bunch of leaves
5. Naveena Rama 36 bunch of leaves
6. Navagraha 216 bunch of leaves
7. Sadyujata 72 bunch of leaves
8. Sri Krishnaraja 72 bunch of leaves
9. Panchapandava 216 bunch of leaves
10. Devi Dashavatara 180 bunch of leaves
11. Dikpala 160 bunch of leaves
12. Manohara 160 bunch of leaves
13. Sarva Mangala 160 bunch of leaves
14. Navaratna 160 bunch of leaves
15. Ramayana 96 bunch of leaves
16. Dashavatara 120 bunch of leaves
17. Sarvasamrajya 636 bunch of leaves
18. Astaishwarya 320 bunch of leaves.
 PROCESS

This art was earlier done on fabric, leather, leaf and ivory. Later, designs were
painted on cards, mainly round in shape. After some later developments
artists used to paste 10-20 layers of newspaper, on that they paste the
drawing sheet over which they apply the paste of refined flour .Now days,
artists have changed the technique by using mount board, over which they
paste ivory sheet or cartridge sheet and start the painting. The first step
requires the artist to make a preliminary sketch of the image on the base.
Thereafter, he makes a paste of zinc oxide and Arabic adhesive, known as
'gesso paste'. This paste is used to give a slightly raised effect of carving to
those parts of the painting that require embellishments and is allowed to dry.
The artist does two coatings of this paste to make a proper raised surface.
Then, gold foil is pasted onto the surface, using Arabic adhesive. Now a day’s
fevicolis used as gum. Some artists apply varnish after gesso paste so as to
avoid cracking of gold foil in future(traditionally which was done by natural
motlen lac). They left the gold foil dried for another 6-8 hours. After which they
use brush to remove the excess gold. Some used cotton in place of brush.
Since it is gold foil, which is very expensive, they use the left out gold foil on
some other surfaces of painting. The rest of the painting is prepared with the
help of water colors. Initially they used natural dyes, which are replaced by
poster colors and water colors in modern times.

.
 PROCESS CONT.

The basic colors that we can see in any Mysore painting are primary
colors: Red, Green and Blue. Earlier the colours used were made out
of natural resources and were very few like green, blue, yellow, red,
black and white. Colours were extracted from vegetables leaves
and flowers. Earth colours were also used to a large extent. Colour
preparation was interesting process in which the artists themselves
were involved.

After the painting is fully dried, it is covered with a thin paper and
rubbed lightly with a smooth soft stone.

There are three types of paintings:

•Paintings with plain gold foil without embossing

•Paintings with embossing
•Makki Safeda Work: firstly the base color is painted, then after
shades of white color (zinc oxide: super white) is applied.

Border is compulsory in every painting; done in black and yellow

color prominently. The artist highlights the main figures in yellow
color mainly to differentiate it from the background
 TOOLS AND COLORS

All colors are made by hand and they are rich in

natural minerals and vegetable dyes. These colors
are created by drying the natural organic products
and finally grinding them to obtain desired colors.
At times of application water is mixed with powder
form grinded colors and then to make it stable for
long time lac or varnish is used over it.

In this type of painting very fine quality of brushes

are obtained by squirrel tail hair. Its hair has soft
and stick together quality which makes it best for
painting purpose. Very minute and intricate work
can be done with help of squirrel tail brushes.

Scissor and cutter are other tools required to get

desired shape and form to painting canvas. Most
common shape is circle.

Now days forceps is used to place the golden foil

earlier which was done with tail tip of brush only.
 FAMOUS PERSONALITIES

R.G. Singh
RAMSONS KALA PRATISHTANA
1160, Ramsons House, In front of Zoo, Mysore
570010
T: +91-821-2443669. M: +91-9880111625
E: ramsonsmysore@yahoo.com

Ramdas Adyanthaya

'Chawadi', HIG 1734,

8th Main, Vijaya Nagara 2nd Stage
Mysore 570017
Phone : 0821-2302625

Kishor N Gordhandas
Gladhurst, A-11, 1st Floor,
Sir Phirozeshah Mehta Road Santacruz West,
MUMBAI 400 054,
INDIA
GANJIFA ARTISTS

Raghupathi Bhatta
Ganjifa cottage,
Chamundi hills,
Mysore 570017
Ph : 9844200900

K.S. Shreehari
Chawadi market,
8th Main, Vijaya Nagara
2nd Stage
Mysore 570017

Ramkumar Thakur
Sawantwadi Palace
National highway 17,
Maharashtra 416510

Mohan Kulkarni
Sawantwadi Palace
National highway 17,
Maharashtra 416510