Dholpur Pink Sandstone Standing Bal Krishna with Butter Pot, 15 in

The stone

Dholpur sandstone is quarried in eastern Rajasthan, in the belt that runs down from Bharatpur toward the Chambal. It is a fine, even quartz sandstone, and in the pink shade it reads as a warm pale blush that shifts toward tan as the light moves across it. The choice is not incidental for a Krishna murti: red-and-pink sandstone from this belt is what Vrindavan's oldest surviving temples, Govind Dev Ji and Madan Mohan, were raised in during the sixteenth century. Sandstone is slightly porous, so it takes a soft honed sheen rather than a mirror polish, and the surface stays matte enough to show every chisel pass across the dhoti folds and the beaded necklaces. The stone is opaque, with no translucency, and it holds fine carved detail at small scale without chipping along the edges.

The form

Bal Krishna appears here as Makhan Chor, the butter thief of the Braj stories. He stands as a young child on a plain plinth, a round butter pot cradled against his hip, the other hand lifted with a ball of makhan closed in the fist. The proportions are deliberately those of a toddler — a large head, soft rounded limbs, a short belly, feet planted flat and slightly apart. A peacock feather rises from the crown, and he wears layered bead necklaces, armlets, bangles and anklets over a short dhoti. There is no flute. The flute belongs to Venugopal, the youth of the Vrindavan groves; the standing child with butter is a separate and older devotional image, the one families keep for daily seva as Laddu Gopal.

How it is made

Every piece is made to order. We work out the brief with you first — the shade of the stone, the height, how much ornament you want on the crown and the jewellery — and then it goes to the master sculptors we work with in Jaipur, who carve it by hand from a single block. The rough form is cut and squared, the primary volumes are shaped, and only then does the detail work begin: the face, the fingers closed around the butter ball, the beadwork, the pleating of the dhoti. Those passes are always completed by hand, never left to machine tooling. The last stage is a graded honing that brings the sandstone to a soft satin without closing its pores. We follow the piece through carving, packing and delivery to your door.

Sizing it for your mandir

At 15 inches this is a shelf-height murti rather than a floor piece — roughly 5 inches across and 5 inches deep at the plinth, and about 8 kilos, so a standard mandir shelf or a solid wooden chowki carries it without reinforcement. That scale suits daily seva: the murti sits near eye level when you are seated, close enough to dress, bathe and offer bhog without lifting it down. Leave a hand's width of clear space on either side so the raised arm and the pot read cleanly against the backing. If you want it taller for a dedicated pooja room, or in Makrana white marble, Vietnam white marble, black stone or cast marble dust instead, tell us the height and the stone and we will quote it. A short inscription can be cut into the plinth for a griha pravesh or Janmashtami gift.