GANJIFA- A Visit to Royal Palace Of sawantwadi

 PART I :  Discovering Ganjifa , journey to sawantwadi and the visit to Royal palace.   

                      ‘GANJIFA’ is  a royal game of playing cards which is roughly thought to be originated in Persia travelled its way to India with the Mughals in 16th century spreading in different regions and states being modified and designed by the imagination of artists. This game of cards is completely different from the cards we play today. My journey focuses on Sawantwadi ganjifa in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.

THE BACKSTORY OF BEGINNING:

It was in 2018 when I accidentally stumbled across the art of Ganjifa as I was searching for a subject for my art college's short research. The name ganjifa caught my attention and knowing that such a beautiful piece of art is still alive today in my state of Maharashtra made me more curious and excited. After a lot of searching and gathering information, I was quite disappointed as I could not find any written books or any information easily available  near me. Also a question why was this art not included as a part of heritage of Maharashtra in the art history I learned! 

              

               With no knowledge or idea about how my journey would be, also with no camera very simple  phone camera, and to add almost broke  I made my decision to visit the palace and gather all the information I could and satisfy my curiosity if not make a difference. By scraping all the little bit of savings  with help of my classmate manoj who accompanied me in this journey, We were all set  to sawantwadi from Bombay via train.

Visit to the palace: 

Artist working in darbar hall

" you can visit the palace between  9:30 -5:30 anytime and yes there will be people who will tell you about ganjifa." This one line on the telephonic conversation at the palace office with an unknown person brought me from Bombay to sawantwadi. All prepared and with my questions we set off to the palace first thing in the morning at sharp 9:30 am.

        Situated right in front of the moti lake the beauty the royalness makes one awestruck and excited at the same time. The palace has a museum where one can view the historical archives of the  royal family and know more about their history. On visiting I managed to talk to people in the office who guided me that I could visit the Darbar hall of palace and see the artists working. Entering the darbar hall one can view the artists of young and old generation working together creating the handpainted sets of ganjifa cards and a lot more. The beauty of rhythmic lines, the minute miniature styled details the freehand styles and the passion of artists creating it cannot be missed at all. On my visit I could see four artists sitting on their individual tables working on their sets which were mostly the client orders to be fulfilled. 

 

   But, what further how do I find someone who guides me through? Talking to some people working there I got to know i could get a detailed information talking to either  Ranisaheb  or the yuvraj of palace if I had a prior appointment and a letter from my college. Handing over my college letter to the person  I waited hardly for 10 minutes when I got to know the ranisaheb and yuvraj will see you now and talk to you if they are not busy today. Confused, nervous as these terms were new to me and unexpected as I was only mentally prepared to talk to some museum guide. I had no idea how this would go on.

             Finally I was lucky enough to meet the  Queen , Her highness the  Ranisaheb Shubdadevi  Bhonsle  and her son His highness Yuvraj Lakham Raje Bhonsle even without any prior appointment they humbly accepted my request understanding my condition  and also agreed to share and guide me as much they could in the short amount of time. Ranisaheb took me back to the darbar hall and guided me through the history and revival of art, after which i got the opportunity to have a word with  the yuvraj, who specially brought to show me the samples of ganjifa cards sets, also explained me the details, the style the patterns of every designed set of cards and handed me the guide book to play the game of ganjifa. After explaining me the nature of the game, Yuvraj spared some time to answer my questions about the art sharing his views about connecting the art and the heritage to the social media world and bringing new changes like starting the ganjifa workshops, working again in medium of natural colors and taking more steps towards approaching more and more people into spread of this art.

          

In conversation with H.H.Yuvraj Lakham Raje bhonsle

Overwhelmed by the humbleness of the royal family members and a completely unexpected meeting which I still clearly remember, I was lucky enough to experience and view the Royal beauty of this uniquely handcrafted cards of Ganjifa. A subject which was just a part of  research became something more than just a research and close to heart. A lot of self doubt and questions kept me from posting my journey and experience for 3 years but I have finally decided to share in the simple words  I possibly could, With hopes to one day I could also contribute in some way to promote this beauty of ganjifa that I will cherish life long.

 [ Sawantwadi Ganjifa: The game,  arrival in sawantwadi , the Revival and lot more to be continued in detail in part II]

(The information above and in the further parts are as per my research in November 2018, The images clicked  are all  for educational & informative purposes.)

Special thanks to manoj kajbale for being a important part of my journey.

    TO  BE CONTINUED...….