Mumbai-based illustrator Ayushi Saria redesigns a deck of Indian playing cards from 1922, reclaiming the format through a modern Indian lens that celebrates brown skin, architectural heritage and the royalty of contemporary India.
In 1922, a deck of playing cards called the Dilkhus was printed in India. The artwork was whimsical and formally composed, influenced by British design sensibilities but ornamented with South Asian motifs. The deck used India as its inspiration, but through a foreign lens. Ayushi Saria came across it in a visual archive and immediately knew what she wanted to do.
“I wanted to take that idea and flip it,” she says, “a deck by a brown woman, celebrating brownness and Indian design unapologetically.”
Jharokha is the result. The name means window, specifically the ornate latticed windows of Rajputi and Mughal architecture, built for royalty to observe the people below while remaining unseen themselves. Saria chose the name deliberately and then reversed its logic: her deck is a window not for royalty to look out of, but for everyone to look in through. Each King, Queen and Jack represents a different region of India in clothing, motifs and skin tone, rooted in how India looks and feels today rather than how it has been seen from outside.
The research began with those 1922 archives and expanded outward through three months of design work, drawing on Saria’s deep fascination with Indian architecture and the stories embedded in walls, balconies, windows and doorways.
“I wanted to create a deck that reflects brown skin, Indian culture, and architectural heritage,” she says, “not in a touristy way, but as a familiar experience that we all share.”
The cards are printed on premium paper with the quality and feel of real poker playing cards, a standard tested rigorously by her parents, who love card games and have high expectations.
The deck launched just before Diwali 2025, a timing Saria chose deliberately: nothing goes together quite like Diwali and a taash party.
“As someone who believes in continual exploration, I don’t think of this deck as a final product,” she says. “It’s a beginning, one of many ways I plan to reimagine forgotten Indian stories through illustration.”
Ayushi Saria is an illustrator based in Mumbai creating visual identities infused with Indian maximalism, balancing modern design with cultural richness through colour, form and storytelling.
ARTIST LINKS
ayushisaria.myportfolio.com
@ayushisariadraws
ayushisaria.com
Jharokha Playing Cards, 2025. Illustrated by Ayushi Saria. Premium playing card stock. All photography and photoshop: Ayushi Saria.
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