Thread by @VAdkri

Ganjapa Cards Of Parala:
Thread
Ganjapa , one of the traditional card game of Odisha, where Playing Cards are in circle shaped.
Paralakhemundi, had been the haven for Ganjapa craftsmen who supplied ancient playing cards to various parts of the world.
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The game of Ganjapa cards, which was played by members of royal families and zamindars in the ancient era, later by common people, is now on the decline. The demand for these cards is languishing due to lack of adequate customers and rising cost of production.
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Ganjapa is a recreational game for Odia society, primarily villagers after medieval era. It is played with circular shaped Pattachitra painted cards. The game is very popular in the heritage town Paralakhemundi of southern odisha.
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Pattachitra motifs and patterns with figurative representations of mythological figures and other people, specifically the Ramayana, Dasavatara , Bhagabata and other deities are painted on the round cards with traditional touch .
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Bulk orders from outside the state, which was quite common a few decades ago, have now stopped due to many reasons.

“The popularity of Ganjapa cards made by craftsmen, known as chitrakara in Odia, has been fading away,” for lack of promotions
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Well-known artists like Simanchala Bindhani Ratna, Tuna Mahapatra ,Ranjita Mahapatra,Rama Paikaraya who resides in Parala ,has been creating Ganjappa cards since childhood. There are 25 chitrakar families at Paralakhemundi who are engaged in creating traditional paintings.
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But the numbers of families producing the export quality Ganjapa has come down drastically.
The craftsmen says there are 96, 120 or 144 sets of Ganjapa cards, played with the theme of group war and have resemblance with modern chess. The game is played between four players.
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The size of each circular card is same in diameter. These cards are prepared from two-folded cloth with three-inch width. One has to rinse the cloth with a paste of tamarind seeds, mix it with Genguti stone powder and dry it under the sun to make it stiff.
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The craftsman cuts the cards in circular size and rubs each card on the stone to make it smooth ,this is called Rubana process. They paints 12 natural colours in each card and again dries it under the sun. When it dries up.
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They paint traditional arts on the surface of each card as per the requirements including themes of soldiers on elephants, horses and chariots. The back of the card is painted in red with a coating of kewda (known as kiaa in Odia) leaves to make it shining.
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Artists admit that the hardship and artistic values engaged in producing the Ganjapa does not cope up with the sale price. While it takes at least one week to prepare one set of Ganjappa, its price varies between Rs 800 to Rs 5,000 with very limited customers.
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They generally prepare Ganjapa with paintings of Dasabatara, Nabagraha, Astamalla, Bara Rasi, Ramayana, Mahabharata and 27 Naxatra with Rajamantri Chakamuthi. However, there is no market for these Ganjappa in local area .

The state government must run a training centre at Paralakhemundi for budding artists to learn the process of painting Ganjapa and Paralara_Pattachitra . Also request to provide some financial benefits to artisans
@Culturedeptt @sudarsansand