Visit to Raghurajpur, Orissa

I visited the fantastic Raghurajpur handicraft village in Orissa. It was a great experience and this village tops my list of places I would love to go again (no doubt because I adore Indian handicrafts, and the talented artisans of Orissa are renowned for producing some of India's best.

The big attraction at Raghurajpur is that the whole village community is involved in making some kind of handicraft. Many have even won national awards for their work. There are just over 100 households and 300 artisans in the village. Anyone can wander around, check out the beautiful painted murals on the houses, chat to the friendly artisans and see them in action -- and of course their shops-cum-houses.

Pattachitra traditional cloth paintings are a specialty in the village, but the artisans make a wide variety of items including Ganjifa playing crads, palm leaf engravings, stone carvings, masks, wood carvings, and wooden toys. They also do regional art(almost like Warli art) on things like alcohol bottles, clocks, coconut, etc..

The sad part is that the Ganjifa artists have now started practising other form of art than making ganjifa cards. They don't get paid for their hard work.At times, they have to compromise with the price and sell their artwork at lesser price in order to earn a bit of money. The people don;t buy these cards because they are a bit expensive, Rs 2,000- Rs 5,000. It takes the artists more than 5 days to 10 days to complete 1 set of cards with fine work. The artists don't encourage their children to take up this art because their is no money in the art form.

The villagers themselves don't know how to play the game. They themselves play the modern 4 coloured, rectangular cards. They say that the game is tough to play. There are only 3 or 4 old people who actually know how to play this game, the others who knew had died. The artists who make these cards, they also don't know how to play these cards and believe that if they waste their time in playing their game then who will make these cards. On my request, some of them came together to play the dying game. I faced problem in understanding their language because the old men who knew the game properly couldn't talk in hindi or english. But, somehow I did manage to understand the game a bit with the help of others.

I feel there is a need to create awareness among the people about this valuable art which is dying a slow death. I will surely give in my best to save this art form and encourage the other to do the same.

Process of making Ganjifa Cards

The process of making Ganjifa cards was laborious and it involved all members of a family. The first is of course the preparation of the materials required for the painting. Tamarind seeds are soaked in water in an earthen pot and then boiled to get a gummy solution. Rice powder may be added to give a stiffer feel to the canvas. This process known as 'Niryas Kalpa' takes a few days.

After this, two course cotton cloth pieces of the same dimensions are selected and pasted together using this solution. This forms the 'Pata' or the base canvas for the painting. Chalk, clay or stone powder is then mixed with the tamarind solution and applied on both sides of the canvas to give it a semi-absorbent surface coat. After canvas has dried it is burnished first with coarse grain, and then with polished stones to give it a smooth surface. The process of polishing involves many hours of careful work. The result is a canvas with high tensile strength and an excellent surface coat for the intricate lines that are to be made on it.

After the cards have dried, the designs are painted on a white background. The roundels are 4-5 inches in diameter, which can differ in sizes according to customer preferences. The back is painted with a single colour.

In RAGHURAJPUR, the artists paint on their outside walls of their houses.

A well known Ganjifa artist had paint the process of making Ganjifa and its use.

The painted wall outside the house

First step, the preparation of the canvas

When the canvas is ready, it is put under the sun for dryin.

Then it is cut into circular shapes.

The background and the border is coloured

Then the drawings are made and coloured.

After the drawings are done. At last, the cards are polished with varnish

and put under the sun to dry. Now, the cards are ready to be played

This is the scene from ancient times, where brahmins and kings

are playing Ganjifa in their freetime.

Type of Ganjifa Cards

The nava-gunjara (Vishnu in the composite form

of nine animals), inspired from Ramayana.

The nava-gunjara (Vishnu in the composite form

of nine animals), set of 16 colours

The Dashavatar set, 16 colours

The Kamasutra set, 52 cards.

The Dashavatar Set, 4 colours with the box

The Dashavatar Set, 52 cards

The nava-gunjara (Vishnu in the composite form

of nine animals), 8 colours

The Dashavatar Set, 52 colours

The Mughal Set, mughal- wazir n shah

The mughal Set from late 18th century,

shows servants, gold coins, flowers

The Ganesh Set

The nava-gunjara (Vishnu in the composite form

of nine animals), one colour has 12 cards

The Dashavatar Set,12 colours

Dasavatara Ganjifa

Ganjifa cards were usually hand-painted. This version was printed chromo-lithographically by the Chitrasala Press in around 1950. Ten suits of twelve cards, each suit is based on one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu. An upper court card, Raja, a lower court card, Pradhan or Mantri, and ten numerals in each suit. Suits are: Matsya (fish), Kurma (turtle), Varaha (boar), Narasimha (lion), Vamana (water pot), Parashurama (axe), Rama (bow & arrow, or monkey), Krishna (quoit or cow), Buddha (conch) and Kalkin (sword or horse).

120 Cards, 2¾" in diameter, printed by Chitrasala Press, Pune, around 1950 with either black, red or white backs.

All of the Pradhans are shown riding on white horses (middle row). The God Vishnu is shown on the

Raja cards (top row).