GANJIFA

MYSORE PAINTING

INTRODUCTION HISTORY TOOLS PROCESS FAMOUS PERSONALITY ARTISAN

INDEX

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 days 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