Black Granite Dahi Handi Bal Krishna, 18 in

The Dahi Handi leela

On the second day of Gokulashtami, Maharashtra hangs an earthen matki high above the street and lets the govinda pathaks build their human pyramid to break it. The story underneath is older: Yashoda strung the butter pot from the rafters to keep it out of a small boy's reach, and the small boy found his way to it anyway. This Bal Krishna is caught in the moment just before the reach succeeds — up on his toes, one arm stretched toward the pot, the other flung wide for balance. He is carved as a child rather than a shrunken adult, with a large head and soft rounded limbs, a peacock feather rising from the mukut, a dhoti knotted at the waist, bangles at both wrists and rows of anklets. There is no flute: the flute belongs to the grown Krishna of Vrindavan, and the matki belongs to this one.

Black granite, and what it does at 18 inches

The stone is Indian black granite — the jet-black, very fine-grained stone quarried around Khammam and long used for temple sculpture across South India, where Pallava and Chola builders chose it for its hardness. It is dense and non-porous, with no veining to interrupt a small figure and no open pores for dust to settle into inside carved ornament. Worked to a mirror polish it carries one long unbroken sheen down the raised arm and across the curve of the belly, and the necklaces, wristlets and anklets read as crisp bright lines against the black. On a piece this size that matters more than it would at four feet: at 18 inches the ornament is most of what you see, and black granite is one of very few stones that will take a finish that fine and hold it.

How the piece is made

The block is squared and the mass roughed out first — the standing child, the round plinth, the arc of the raised arm — before any detail is cut. The face, the fingers, the peacock feather and the strings of ornament are then worked entirely by hand. Polishing follows in stages, each abrasive finer than the one before, until light travels across the stone in a single clean sweep instead of breaking up. Every piece is made to order by the master sculptors we work with in Jaipur. We design it with you first — the size, the stone, the plinth, how far the ornament is carried — then brief the sculptor, follow the work through each stage, and see it delivered to your door.

Placing an 18-inch murti

Eighteen inches is the height that belongs on a shelf rather than on the floor. The figure spans about 8 inches at the widest point of the outstretched arm and about 6 inches front to back, and comes in near 10 kg with its integrated round plinth, so the chowki or shelf it stands on should be rated for that weight. Set it at eye level or slightly below in a home mandir — the raised arm and the hanging pot read best when you are looking a little up at them. For Janmashtami it moves easily to a console or an entrance table as the centre of the day's display. Day to day it asks only for a soft dry cloth; keep oil, camphor smoke and acidic cleaners off the polished faces.

Making it yours

The same form scales both ways — 12 inches for a compact mandir, 24 or 36 inches where you want it to hold a room — and it can be cut in Makrana white marble, Vietnam white marble or Dholpur pink sandstone instead of black granite, each of which changes the character of the piece. The plinth can be plain, stepped or lotus-carved, and the polish can drop to a soft satin if you would rather the stone stayed quiet. A name or a date can be engraved along the plinth edge for a Janmashtami or housewarming gift. Message us with what you have in mind and we will work it out together.