Playing Card in India

Playing card in India is a popular sport. The history of playing cards dates back to 9th century China after the invention of paper although the exact origin is still not clear. According to some scholars its origin can be traced to the Middle East. Playing Cards came into India from Persia also. It is also known as "Ganjifa" Playing Cards was not known when the game arrived from Persia. They may have been acquired through trade in the Silk Road or brought by the Mongol conquerors in the 13th century. 

Origin of Playing Cards
The Indian origin of playing cards is traced from the resemblance of symbols on some early European cards like ring, sword, cup and baton depicted in the four hands of Indian statues. There is also conventional saying that the cards are being played in India since time immemorial and the Brahmins invented them. According to some historians, playing card in India was derived from the game chess.

The earlier days playing cards had a similarity to our modern cards. There were total 52 cards of four suits, which had swords, cups, coins and polo-sticks. It also had numerics from one to ten. It is near about in 1480, the modern day cards of spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs appeared first. 

Ganjifa and Playing Cards
Persian cards, known as "Ganjafa", have eight suits. The Mughal conquerors brought these cards to India in the early 16th century where they are called "Ganjifa". In India, current packs used for play have eight, ten, or twelve suits though as many as 32 suits once existed. The Indians also converted the original rectangular cards to circular ones. A card game is played by using playing cards which can be a piece of specifically designed heavy paper or thin card, decorated with particular motifs. To know more read:

http://www.indianetzone.com/19/playing_card_india.htm

Types of Playing Cards

Types of playing cards in India vary with multiple rounds and tricks of play. Each of the players plays a single card from hand, and based on the value of the card played, one player wins or takes the trick. There are specific objects to each game and includes taking as many tricks as possible, and also taking as many scoring cards within the tricks won as possible. Bridge, Whist, Euchre, Spades, and the various Tarot card games are popular examples. 

Matching Games
The main idea of matching games, melding or Rummy is to acquire the required groups of matching cards before an opponent can do so. In matching game this done through discarding and drawing, and the groups are known as melds. Mahjong is a more or less same that is played with tiles instead of cards. Non-Rummy examples of match-type games generally fall into the "fishing" genre and include the children's games Go Fish and Old Maid.

Shedding Games
In this type of card game players begin with hand of cards and the objective of the game is to be the first player to discard all cards from one's hand. Some matching-type games are also shedding-type games; some variants of Rummy such as Phase 10 and Rummikub, as well as the children's game Old Maid, fall into both categories. 

Fishing Games
In this type of game the cards from hand are actually played against cards in a layout on the table, thus capturing table cards if they match. Fishing games are famous in many nations. Scopa is considered as the national game of Italy and Cassino is the only fishing game to be extensively played in English speaking counties. To know more read:

http://www.indianetzone.com/58/types_playing_cards.htm