A SET OF NINE FORTUNE TELLING CARDS, Pahari, Basohli, circa 1730

A. Water buffalo in a shelter
B. Four ladies at a well
C. Plant form
D. Three animals
E. Two figures
F. Shiva shrine
G. Nine pots
H. Turtle
I. Girl holding bowl

A related group of cards is in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum, Hyderabad  (Welch 1976, p.28, no.2). Described in Cary Welch's catalogue for the exhibition Indian Drawings and Painted Sketched, 16th-19th Centuries as folios from a Book of Omens (Sakunamala). Painted by a village artist, these cards would have had strings attached to them and been used to read peoples' fortunes.