A twelve-suited version of Ganjifa invented by the Mughal emperor Akbar in the mid-sixteenth century, Akbar’s Ganjifa is described in the Ain-i-Akbari, an account of Akbar’s rule written by his biographer Abu’l Fazl. While the gameplay and card structure within a suit appear to be the same as traditional Ganjifa, the suits themselves are entirely different.

In Ganjifa, each suit contains two court cards called shah (king) and wazir (minister), as well as numerical cards from one to ten. In Akbar’s version, the king card is also known as the amir.

The twelve suits of Akbar’s Ganjifa are: Horses, Elephants, Infantry, Treasures, Warriors, Ships, Women, Gods, Demons, Wild Beasts and Serpents. The first eight of these twelve suits not only roughly correspond to the administrative structure of the Mughal Empire at the time, but may also have a commemorative aspect in their depiction of the empire’s political landscape during Akbar’s rule. The remaining four suits are more mythological in nature. While the king cards of the suits are all distinct, the minister cards are mostly shown seated on a chandeli (a type of footstool), with a few exceptions.

The first three suits – Horses, Elephants and Infantry – are believed to be representative of Akbar, his viceroy in eastern India and his viceroy in southern India respectively. In the suit of Horses, the king is ashwapati, lord of horses and the ruler of Delhi, while the minister is seated on a horse. In the suit of Elephants – whose minister is shown atop an elephant – the king is gajapati, lord of elephants and vassal ruler of what is now Odisha. Similarly, the third suit of Infantry has narpati, lord of men and the vassal ruler of Bijapur, as its king.