The figures represented on the cards may have been inspired by the chess, relating this connection to a game of antique India, which provided for pieces of personifed figures both royal and military. The most antique Indian table-game Ashtapada (renamed Chaturanga, or of 4 kings, in the fifth century AD is very similar to the 4 suits of playing cards. It concerns a precursory game of modern chess; the figures were the King, the General (which today it becomes the Queen), the horse and the Jacks. The game composed of a fighting game with various pieces, ordered according to a precise gerarchy, of which the highest value was the râjâ. Incarnation Name Symbol First
Matsya Fish Second
Kurma
Turtle Third
Varah Wild pig Fourth
Nara-Simba Lion Fifth
Vamana Dwarf or jar Sixth
Paracu-Rama Axe Seventh
Rama-Chandra Arrow Eighth
Krishna Cow Ninth
Buddha Triton Tenth
Kalki Sword or horse
L'INDIA
The Queen did not exist because a female figure in a game which had something to do with a military stategy, was in contrast with the idea of decorum.
The Chaturanga, which later became the persian, Shatranj, is considered one of the most possible origins of round Indian cards.
In Sanskrit, ‘catur’ means ‘four’, while the term ‘anga’ originates ‘part’ or ‘faction’, as to give place to four bodies of the Indian army: the elephant riders, the cavalry, the infantry and the driver of chariots (changed to ‘ships’).
It is probable that to a certain point, the players remained without any draughtsmen, and thought of substituted them with pieces of the bark of a tree or of paper, giving, bit by bit, origin to a new game.
Some of antique Indian playing decks have eight to ten suits and twelve cards for each suit, numbered from 1 to 10 plus two figures.
The elephant riders, the cavalry, and the infantry represented also among the suits of the cards Kridapatram. The term Kridapatram implies ‘painted cloths for playing’, and was a game of which the combination was based on number 12: in fact, twelve was the suits as well as the cards of each suit.
This is similar to Ganjifa, the cards used for drawing card games. Two of this (Ekrang e Hamrang) used a scheme similar to that employed for the first European tarots. It is believed that the cards Ganjifa have the Persian origin, influenced by the Eastern World (probably the decks of a monetary suit), and reached India at the time of emperor Mughal (or Mogol) (the sixteenth century) the golden age for this game and for the Indian cards. At this period, the first quotations on the card Kridapatram and also those of Ganjifa returned. The term derives from ‘ganjifeh’, or ‘playing card’. Although Culin, connects them with the fusion between the term ‘ganj’ (or ‘treasure’) with the ‘cards (of playing) of the Chinese card chi pai.
This exchange could be possible thanks to the diffusion of the Buddhism in China.
Also the deck Ganjifa is constituted of twelve subjects, with the non-figurated cards (from 1 to 10) and two figures: a minister (or adviser) and a king.
The illustrations represent human figures and incarnations of many Indian gods, among which the incarnation or avatares of Vishnù, one of the Indian Trinity:
The cards were subdivided between strong suits ‘bishbar’ and weak suits ‘kambar’; in the first suits the value increased from 1 to 10, while in the second ones it was reversed.
The exoterist, Wilhelm Postel (the sixteenth century) outlined his famous Chiave dei Grandi Misteri(the Keys of Great Mysteries) - constituted of the letters T A R O – as well as the letters written around a circle. The reading was much likely TAROT since, as you can observe, in a figure circling around the first letter of the word can also be the last.
‘Taro’ is also a term close to the meaning of Tibetian god, Tara, personification of an eternal wisdom, incarnation of peace and justice.
The Sanskrit root of the term ‘tar’ signifies ‘go across the sea’, ‘arrive at the bottom’, ‘dominate completely’. The noun ‘tara’ means ‘floating’, ‘boat’, ‘ferry’; Tara is the other name with which indicates Vishnu.
As regards the derivation of the card from the Indian world, the term Taro o Tarota gains the valency of a wheel or the circle of the Heaven’s divinity, whose vision could bring to the awareness of life and of human role inside of the creation.
At the end of our Indian trip with the cards on the research of the roots of tarots, it is already time to depart for another magical place...
