Rang Milanti
Introduction
Rang Milanti is a children's game from Bengal - that is the region consisting of Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. It is loosely realted to the Western game War. Its name means 'suit matching'. It is said that it was originally devised to be played with the cards that were removed from standard packs by adults playing the popular Indian card game Twenty-Nine which uses only 32 of the 52 cards. The unused cards were the 2-6 of each suit and two such remainders were put together to make a 40-card pack with 10 cards of each suit. In this game only the suits of the cards matter, not the rank, and nowadays Rang Milanti is usually played with a full standard international pattern 52-card pack, or two such packs mixed together if there is a large number of players. Typically it is the first card game that Bengali children learn to play.
I am grateful to Sarthak Das for explaining this game to me.
Deal
All the cards are dealt out equally to the players. If the cards do not divide equally any left over cards (if total cards don’t divide evenly) are stacked face up in the centre to begin the play pile. Each player holds their own cards as a face-down deck.
Play
Turn order is anti-clockwise, starting with the dealer. On your turn you reveal the top card of your face-down deck and place it face up in the centre, on top of the play pile.
- If your card matches the suit of the previous top card, you collect the entire play pile, placing it aside face down as your collected pile. You then get another turn immediately, reveal your next card and place it face up in the centre to begin a new play pile..
- If the suit of the card doesn’t match, your card remains on top of the play pile and the turn passes to the next player om your right.
If at any point your deck runs out, you reshuffle your collected pile to form a new personal deck and continue. If you have no collected pile, you are eliminated and the other players continue without you, skipping your turn.
End of Game
The game continues until one player remains, having eliminated all others and amassing all the cards. This player is declared the winner.