Now, you can gift hand-painted ganjifa playing cards for Deepavali

Gearing up for a game of cards this Deepavali? Go back to the 16th Century with a luxurious, hand printed ganjifa deck

Artist Banamalli Mohapatra is busy creating decks of cards for Deepavali, with cotton saris, squirrel hair brushes and crushed stone colours. Athrangi ganjifa, with 96 cards hand-painted by Banamalli, puts the spotlight on ganjifa this festive season. One of the world’s oldest playing cards, ganjifa traces its origin back to the 16th Century. Though Persian in origin, over a period of time, the art form embraced the pantheon of Hindu mythology in its expressions.

Each card is made through an intricate and long process using old cotton saris that are painted with squirrel hair brushes in crushed stone colours. In the past, ganjifa cards featured paintings of wrestlers, acrobats, swordsmen, musicians, animals and birds. The iconography, however, has changed today and is now largely centred around devotional themes.