Dasâvatâra Ganjifa
120 playing cards

This is a hand-painted Dasâvatâra Ganjifa deck, from India. The cards shown on this page come from Orissa, and were painted by national award winner Banamali Mahapatra, whose family has been making Ganjifa cards for five generations. This deck is composed of a total of 120 cards, 12 cards in 10 suits (or colors; the word "dasâvatâra" means ten colors). It should be noted that suit patterns vary form state to state, and even from city to city. The suits in this deck are as follows: sword, arrow, turtle, jug, club, axe, chakra (decorated disc), fish, shell, and lotus flower. Each suit is composed of 12 cards, low cards from 1 to 10 and two court cards, the king and the minister (sometimes called adviser or general).