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Small surprises from the history of India's round, painted cards. Every one comes from a book, and the page is given.

In 1514 a poet wrote 96 love poems, one for every card in a ganjifa pack. They say almost nothing about how to play.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 7

In 1527 the emperor Babur, busy conquering India, still found time to send a pack of cards to a friend.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 11

At one royal party in 1545, twelve players sat down with 20 cards each: 240 cards on the carpet at once.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 11

Emperor Akbar redesigned a pack because he thought its twelve kings looked too much alike.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 11

In Persia, a stern shah banned ganjifa in the 1600s and it disappeared there. In India it kept growing.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 11

Forget to play your best card when its suit is led and it gets "burned": it drops to the bottom of its suit.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 52

Ganjifa has no trumps at all. Dummett thought trumps were a European invention unknown anywhere else.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 51

Ganjifa goes round the table the opposite way to a clock, just like old card games in Italy and Spain.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 51

Two old ganjifa games are called Hamrang and Ekrang. A Maharaja wrote down their rules in 1922.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 50

In 1885 one writer argued that saying a god's name at the card table, even as a joke, washed your sins away.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), pp. 21–22

In the palace of Mysore, a single pack of cards could hold 360 cards.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 26

At Puri someone misheard the suit name gulam as gulab, rose-water, so that suit's sign became a red flower.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 18

In Odisha the gold and silver suits are called the sun and the moon.

Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, von Leyden (1981), p. 16