Playing Cards/ ganjifa and the games played with them, probably came to India with the first Mughals from Central Asia. The classic ganjifa with 96 cards and the standard eight suits has lent itself to Hinduisation into its 10 or 12 suited variant with the theme of dashavatara or the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.

Traditionally the cards were painted on roundels cut out from cloth, treated with lac, gum and chalk or pata, while ivory, tortoise shell, mother of pearl and ordinary paper were also used. Probably originating in the Deccan around the 17th century, the dashavatara ganjifa spread to Rajasthan, Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.