Hand-Painted Makrana Marble Lakshmi Ganesh Pair with Gold Shringar, 12 in

A painted pair for the Diwali altar

Most Lakshmi Ganesh pairs in white marble are left plain, and the stone does the talking. This one is dressed. Ganesh sits in a deep red dhoti, Lakshmi in a green sari with a red border, and both wear their crowns, necklaces, armlets and anklets in burnished gold. The lotus thrones are washed a soft pink with gold-edged petals. Faces, hands and feet are left the natural white of the Makrana, so the paint frames the stone rather than covering it. Families who dress their murtis in fresh poshak and jewellery every festival will recognise the look; here the shringar is part of the piece itself.

Makrana marble, painted by hand

The two murtis are carved from Makrana white marble, the fine-grained Rajasthan stone used for temple murtis for centuries, and then painted by hand in the Jaipur painted-murti tradition. The colours are laid in flat, even coats and the gold is picked out with a fine brush along every border, bead and crown point, so no two pairs carry exactly the same line. Because the carving sits underneath, the jewellery and the folds of the garments have real relief; the paint follows the stone instead of drawing detail that is not there.

The traditional forms

The iconography is kept canonical. Ganesh sits on the devotee's left in padmasana, four-armed, holding the ankush and the pasha above, a modak in his lower hand, with his trunk curving to his left towards the sweet and his mouse vahana at the base of his lotus. Lakshmi sits to his right, four-armed, lotuses in her upper hands, her right hand raised in abhaya and her left releasing a stream of gold coins over the edge of her throne. Each murti stands on its own lotus throne and plinth, so the pair can be placed close together or with a kalash between them.

Size, and how it is used

At 12 inches high, each murti about 9 inches across, the pair fits a home mandir shelf or a wall-mounted pooja unit and still reads clearly from across the room. It is made for Lakshmi puja on Diwali night and the Dhanteras purchase that comes before it, and it makes a warm Diwali gift for a family that likes a colourful altar. To keep the paint bright, dust it with a soft dry cloth and avoid pouring water or milk directly over the painted surfaces during abhishek; a separate small metal or plain marble pair is the usual choice for that ritual.

Made to order in Jaipur

Every Tilak Mandirwala piece is made to order in Jaipur with the master craftsmen we have worked with for years. The colours can be changed before work begins: a yellow dhoti for Ganesh, a pink or red sari for Lakshmi, or gold work only on plain white. Tell us the shelf you are filling and the colours of your home altar, and we will quote the pair and its delivery on WhatsApp.