playing cards

Set of 115 Dasavatari Ganjifa playing cards in various colours all with red backs, and round in shape. If the set was complete there would be ten suits of 12 cards, each representing one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu. Each suit contains ten numbered cards, plus two 'court cards', the lower court card represeting Vazir on horseback, and the upper court card illustrating the avatar of Vishnu. The ten suits are: Matsya (represented by a fish), Kurma (turtle), Varaha (boar), Narasimha (lion), Vamana (water pot), Parashurama (axe), Rama (bow and arrow), Krishna (quoit), Buddha (conch), and Kalki (sword).

Five cards are missing from the set: numbers two and seven in the Varaha suit, four in the Narasimha suit, four in the Parashurama suit, and two in the Buddha suit.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
13.3.64/1iii
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 74 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
cardboard; pigment
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
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