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SHIV KUMAR
SAWANTWADI, May 19: For the traditional playing card makers in this town bordering Maharashtra and Goa there are no trumps hidden up their sleeves. Their art is clearly dying, with few from the younger generation taking up the trade.
Ganjifa cards, once popular among royal families across the country, have declined in popularity with the abolition of princely titles. Though the cards are based on several themes including religious and the erotic, these have only curiosity value among tourists today. ``Nobody knows how to play these cards any more,'' says Shashikant Kanekar, who deals in handicrafts. Ten packets of the cheapest Ganjifa cards costing Rs 850 per packet are gathering dust in his shop in Sawantwadi.
Residents of Sawantwadi say the Ganjifa card-makers arrived in the town about 350 years ago, when the Bhonsale royal family of Goa settled here after fleeing from the Portuguese regime there. The Bhonsales brought several artisans along with them who were well versed in wood-carving and painting.These families survived mainly by supplying handicraft items to the royal families.
``Even in the 1960s, there were 45 such families practising this art,'' says Kamlakar Chitari, the last of the descendants of the original artisans. Though six such families still live in Sawantwadi, Chitari's family is the only one painting Ganjifa cards. ``Though the money is good it is time-consuming and the younger generation is not interested in it,'' Chitari rues.
The artisan laboriously prepares the dharchitri Ganjifa cards, which have elaborate designs from the Dashavatar or the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu. Each pack contains 120 hand-painted cards housed in an equally colourful box. ``I manage two packets of dharchitri and five packets of sada Ganjifa every month,'' says Chitari. Thanks to encouragement from the Maharashtra government's handicraft department, Chitari manages to participate in the handicraft expos held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, every year. ``I sell all my work there,''Chitari points out. Though one month's work on the cards bring in approximately Rs 5,000 it is not enough to keep the home fires burning. ``I have to work on wood carvings every day,'' says the master craftsman, who was honoured by the Maharashtra government in 1992.
Traditionally, Ganjifa cards are made from circular pieces of paper on which intricate designs from the Dashavatar are hand-painted. The black pigment used on the cards is obtained from soot by burning tin on a kerosene lamp. ``In the old days, we obtained other colours from Chinese tradesmen,'' Chitari recalls. The colours are then mixed with edible gum before they are applied on the cards.
Chitari, the last of the Ganjifa card painters in Sawantwadi, points out that the inscriptions drawn by his tribe are distinct from compositions elsewhere in the country. ``We don't do erotic designs from the Kamasutra and the characters on the cards are based on the people of the Konkan,'' Chitari explains.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtragovernment which has declared Sawantwadi a heritage city, part of the Sindhudurg tourism district, is all set to rescue the artisans. According to T S Palav, chief municipal engineer of Sawantwadi, the state government is setting up a shilpgram or artists' village to help the craftsmen. ``We will allot workplaces for artists, painters and sculptors from Sawantwadi in the shilpgram,'' Palav says.
The village, proposed to be set up by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation at a cost of Rs 1 crore, will be a model showpiece for artists, says Palav, who helped prepare the plan. The Maharashtra government hopes projects like these will attract more tourists from neighbouring Goa.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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