At a recent seminar in Houston on ‘Royal Legacy: Vijayanagara to Mysore’, I was invited to make a presentation on the craft of Mysore Chada Ganjifa. I featured the work of craftspersons that I have worked closely with, Sudha Venkatesh of Bangalore and Gurupada H of Mysore. Sudha Venkatesh is the winner of the National Award for Excellence in Craft (2005) for Ganjifa Art and young Gurupada is the winner of the Vishwakarma Award for young craftspersons, awarded by the Crafts Council of Karnataka.

54-year-old Sudha, daughter of M Ramanarasiah, former palace artist of Mysore, has painted Ganjifa cards right from the age of ten. Her studio is a mini museum, exhibiting samples of major Mysore Chadas that she has painted. Recognising her talent, well-known Ganjifa collector Kishor Gordhandas commissioned her to finish incomplete sets in Museum collections in many parts of the world, including the Deutsche's Spielkarten Museum in Leinfelden, Germany.

Showing me her copy of the Kautuka Nidhi, ‘Treasure Book of Sports and Pastimes’, she explains, “Kautuka Nidhi has details of the 13 Chadas or card games of Mysore. It gives the names of card games, number of cards, details of iconography, colour combinations and accompanying slokas.”

Kautuka Nidhi is one of the nine chapters of the encyclopedic work Sritatwanidhi (Noble Treasury of Philosophy), written in Kannada and compiled under the patronage of Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (1794-1868). Krishnaraja Wodeyar, more commonly referred to as Mummadi, has personally been credited with having invented several playing card games that are known under the general name of Mysore Chada Ganjifa. Chada in Kannada means leaf or card or card game.

Court artists painted in the miniature style (derived from the mural style of Vijayanagar), using squirrel hair brushes dipped in paints derived from vegetable and mineral sources. Luxury packs painted on sandalwood and ivory and etched in enamelled silver and gold in circular and rectangular shapes, produced in the darbari kalam or royal style, were for the exclusive use of the ruler and his noblemen. The bazaari kalam made cards for the common man, in cardboard, waste paper and starched cloth. The cards were then lacquered for durability and card sets stored in rectangular, painted, wooden boxes.

The 13 chadas in the Mysore school are the Chamundeshwari Chada, Jagan Mohan Chada, Navin Dasavatara Chada, Navagraha Chada, Panch Pandava Chada, Devi Dasavatari Chada, Ashtadikpala Chada, Navin Rama Chada, Manohar Chada, Sarvamangal Chada, Navaratna Chada, Krishnaraj Chada and Sadye Jyatadi Chada.
The introduction of European playing cards that were more compact and cheaper sounded the death knell for traditional Ganjifa cards. Today, Ganjifa cards are valued as works of art.

There are very few samples of original Mysore Chada Ganjifas in its state of origin, Karnataka. The fact that leading museums in the West have complete sets of Mysore ganjifas, while not a single complete set of any Mysore Chada is in any museums in India is indeed a sad commentary on our knowledge of our own heritage. There is an urgent need for museum curators in Karnataka to source complete collections of Mysore Chadas or commission new sets and showcase them to the public.

Gurupada H is a young Ganjifa artist whose work is showcased frequently in different parts of India. Gurupada's paintings of Devi images on Ganjifa cards are marked with soumya (grace and beauty).

An effort has been made recently to register the Ganjifa cards of Karnataka with the Geographical Indication Registration Office, Chennai. “The need for GI, commonly understood as a patent, is necessary for products in the crafts sector. If a crafts product is registered, nobody can sell it by any other name, thereby protecting the identity of the product and enhancing its value,” said Mr M V Narayan Rao, member of the GI Committee and vice-chairperson of the Crafts Council of Karnataka.

Mysore Chada Ganjifa cards will be on exhibition and sale at the Crafts Council of Karnataka's  annual crafts bazaar ‘Kuteera’, being held at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore, between 4 and 10 January 2008, from 10 am to 7 pm. For details, contact: 6530 5029; Telfax : 2334 7299.