Tarot in India

I found a link at WitchVox to an article at newindpress.com (apparently it's "South India's leading news site"). I thought someone might find the article interesting. Here's the link:
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitem...ge=T&Title=Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&rLink=0

The article is about the growing interest in tarot in India.

silverlotus

Thats an interesting article.

i'm sure someone told be once that the tarot itself came from india, do you know anything about this?

now i do hope that new and beautiful indian decks will come out of this inerest for tarot in India.
i can already see them before me. lush and colourful with hindu divinities and myths. perhaps gilded?

The Roots of Asia Tarot, a very beautiful deck, seems to be in the vanguard of this upsurge of interest in the tarot.

Icarus, tarot historians would be able to answer your question better than I, but I think what you are referring to is the theory that tarot originated with people who migrated east from India, later becoming known as Romani (the older word for these people, Gypsies, stems from the idea -- probably erroneous -- that they came from Egypt). But there is no actual historical reason to believe that the Rom invented tarot; the history of the cards is cloudy, indeed.

TarotL Tarot History Information Sheet

It's nice to see a resurgence of interest in Tarot's mythical birthplace. Seriously, though, here is a link to _The TarotL Tarot History Information Sheet_, which performs a valuable public service to the Tarot community in debunking many of the myths relating to Tarot's origins.

You can find it at both of the following sites:

http://www.tarothermit.com/infosheet.htm

http://www.villarevak.org/misc/tarotl_1.html

Best regards,
RustyNeon

Pakshijosiyam

The cited newindpress.com article refers to "pakshijosiyam".

"Surprisingly, Tarot has become quite popular with many people in Chennai where astrology, palmistry and 'pakshijosiyam' have always held fort."

Anyone know what the Indian astrological science of "pakshijosiyam" is?

jema said:

now i do hope that new and beautiful indian decks will come out of this inerest for tarot in India.
i can already see them before me. lush and colourful with hindu divinities and myths. perhaps gilded?

Click to expand...

MMmmmmm, I can see it, too, Jema! Already the awakening tarotholic in me shivers with ant-issssss-ipaaaa-tion! [read a la Dr. Frank N. Furter]

Amyel ... In the meantime, check out the dizzying Kazanlar Tarot deck:

http://www.tarotpassages.com/kazanlar.htm

http://www.spiritone.com/~filipas/Masquerade/Reviews/kazanlar.html

jema said:

now i do hope that new and beautiful indian decks will come out of this inerest for tarot in India.
i can already see them before me. lush and colourful with hindu divinities and myths. perhaps gilded?

Click to expand...

Mmmm. I wouldn't know about that. From the viewpoint of most Hindus I know, 'twould probably be somewhat sacriligeous to put the representations of divinities (especially the major gods/goddesses) on Tarot cards.

thanks - and another link

Thanks - interesting thread. A friend of mine who travels a lot for her work recently told me that she was surprised to find a big interest in tarot in India.

I found this other link too (just did a google on the name of the reader), nice article:

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2002/10/23/stories/2002102300160400.htm

Both sets of my grandparents lived in India (the whole British Raj thing - they were actually British/Irish, but in India for a long time) so a fascination with the place is kind of in the blood. An Indian deck could be marvelous - even if Deities couldn't be used, there is so much symbolism that could work. Perhaps there is one lurking out there, does anyone know?

Karen