Custom Made Jain Tirthankar Statues in Marble Stone

Jain murtis in the Shwetambar Murtipujak convention

Every murti in this collection is carved in the Shwetambar Murtipujak convention, the tradition in which the Jina is depicted clothed. Look closely at any piece here and you will find the kandora (the carved waistband) above a pleated kachota lower garment, kundal earrings on the longer earlobes, and often the prominent open eyes that Shwetambar practice has favoured since the medieval period, so that the devotee stands before a living Tirthankar rather than an image of one.

Shared with every Jina, and never omitted: the srivatsa diamond on the chest, the nasagradrishti gaze settled on the tip of the nose, and the lanchhana on the pedestal, the emblem that names which of the twenty-four you are looking at. A lion is Mahavir Swami. A bull is Adinath. Seven serpent hoods fanned above the head are Parshvanath.

If your derasar or family follows the Digambar tradition instead, these pieces are not the right ones, and the sculptors we work with carve to that convention too. Tell us and we will brief the piece correctly from the start.

Choosing the Tirthankar, and the stone

Jain scripture assigns each Tirthankar a complexion, and where that tradition can be honoured in natural stone, it has been. Munisuvrat Swami and Neminath are carved in black stone because their canonical complexion is dark. Chandraprabhu, whose emblem is the crescent moon, and Suvidhinath are carved in Vietnam white (the coolest, whitest stone available) because theirs is white. The sixteen Tirthankars of golden complexion are carved in Makrana white, the stone Jain sculpture in Rajasthan has used for centuries.

Alongside the twenty-four you will find Simandhar Swami, the living Tirthankar of Mahavideh Kshetra, shown standing in kayotsarga with a mugat crown; and Gautam Swami, Mahavira's first ganadhar, whose murti is installed at Diwali and Labh Panchami.

Sizing a murti for a home derasar or a temple

The collection runs from 9 inches to 41 inches, and the height is the first thing to settle.

A ghar derasar (a home shrine in a cabinet, a niche or a converted closet) is usually served best between 9 and 18 inches. A murti at this size travels as a parcel, arrives crated, and does not need more than one person to place it.

Between 21 and 31 inches sits the piece a family commissions to donate to their local derasar, or to preside over a dedicated pooja room. This is also where the parikar begins to make sense: the carved throne-back surround with flanking pilasters and a torana arch, which a mulnayak is normally given.

At 41 inches the piece is a temple mulnayak: carved with a full parikar, installed on a high stepped pedestal, and crated and shipped as freight. Nothing in this collection is carved below 6 inches, and pieces above 5 feet are quoted as a separate commission rather than ordered from a page.

Ordering from abroad, and the pratishtha question

Most of the families and trusts who commission these pieces are outside India, and two things are worth knowing before you plan a date.

The murti is carved in India, and for Anjan-Shalaka it must be. The ritual is performed by an Acharya, and Jain Acharyas travel on foot, so the consecration happens in India and the murti is shipped afterwards. If your sangh intends a Pran-Pratishtha with Anjan-Shalaka, tell us at the enquiry stage. It changes the schedule, not the carving, and the piece needs to be finished well ahead of the ceremony date.

A simple Pratishtha is a different decision, and a legitimate one. Many derasars in North America install a murti with a simple Pratishtha rather than an Anjan-Shalaka. The idols look identical; what differs is the daily obligation the sangh takes on afterwards. That is a decision for your trust and your guru, not for us, but it is worth settling before the murti is ordered, because a murti's status can be raised later and never lowered.

For anywhere outside India we quote a single landed number (the piece, the crate, the freight, the duty), so there is no arithmetic left for you to do at the port.

How these pieces are made

Each murti here is carved to order by the master sculptors we work with in Jaipur, in the stone and the height you choose. We design the piece with you, brief the sculptor, check the carving as it progresses, and handle the crating and the shipping to your door.

Where a piece is already carved and waiting, it is photographed and sent as it stands, with no carving wait. Where it is commissioned from the block, allow eight to twelve weeks for a statue before it leaves Jaipur.