Topic summary
Court card
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Face card.
History
The 'Rubaiyat-e-Ganjifa' poem (circa 1535) by Ahli Shirazi is the earliest Persian reference to Ganjifa playing cards which describes a 96-card, 8-suited pack, and features two court cards per suit: the king and the vizier. The cards became popular throughout India where most variants follow the two court cards system, with few exceptions like the obscure Mysore Chad Ganjifa having six court cards: Raja (king) on elephant or throne, Rajni (queen) in a palanquin, Amatya or Mantri (vizier) in a ratha, Senani (general) on horseback, Padathi or Sevaka (foot-soldier or servant) and Dhwaja (flag or banner).