Handcrafted Makrana White Marble Hand-Painted Sherawali Durga Statue, 2ft

Makrana marble comes from the quarries of Nagaur district in Rajasthan, worked continuously for more than five centuries and best known as the stone of the Taj Mahal. It is dense and close-grained, holding a fine edge under the chisel, which is why Rajasthani murtikars have long chosen it for figures that carry heavy ornament. On this 24-inch Sherawali Durga the stone does double duty: it takes the deep undercutting of the crown and the jewellery, and it gives the painter a smooth, low-absorbency ground for colour. Carving comes first. The block is roughed out, the seated posture and the lion vahana established, then the arms, the weapons and the folds of the sari are cut back by hand — the face, the fingers and the drapery are never left to a machine. Only once the polish is finished does the painting begin: pigment laid in thin coats over the stone, gold leaf on the mukut and the ornaments, and the eyes drawn last, the step that decides whether a murti reads as present or merely decorated. The plinth is left unpainted so the natural white marble still shows. Sherawali means 'the one with the lion', the name by which Durga is invoked across the North Indian devotional tradition and the form most often installed in homes for Navratri. She sits upright on her vahana rather than in combat, multi-armed, the trishul and the sword held above, her front right hand raised in abhaya — the gesture of fearlessness. This is the presiding, settled aspect of the goddess, distinct from the Mahishasura Mardini form where she is shown mid-battle. A 24-inch murti sits comfortably on a mandir chowki or a raised marble platform, and reads correctly from the floor — the face falls close to eye level for someone seated during aarti. Leave roughly a foot of clear space on either side for garlands and a diya, and keep the shelf above the murti empty. Hand-painted work prefers indirect light; years of strong direct sun will dull the reds long before it touches the stone. The same Sherawali form can be carved larger for a dedicated temple room, or left in natural white marble if the polychrome is not wanted. Gold-leaf coverage can be taken across the full ornament or kept to the crown alone — message us on WhatsApp to work through size and finish.