Makrana White Marble Jalaram Bapa Standing Ashirwad Murti 24in

Jalaram Bapa of Virpur, and how he is shown

Jalaram Bapa is the nineteenth-century Vaishnav sant of Virpur, a village in Rajkot district in the Kathiawad region of Gujarat, remembered above all for the sadavrat — the free kitchen he kept open to anyone who arrived hungry. His iconography follows from that story rather than from temple convention, and this 24-inch murti keeps every part of it. He stands upright, right hand raised palm-out in ashirwad. A wound Kathiawadi turban sits above a long white beard that reaches his chest. The upper body is covered in a long-sleeved kediyu over a white dhoti, the cloth jholi that carried grain for the sadavrat hangs from one shoulder, and the wooden danda rests in his left hand. A Vaishnav U-shaped tilak marks the forehead and a tulsi kanthi sits at the throat — the details Gujarati families look for first when they judge whether a murti is right.

Makrana white marble, and why it suits this figure

The stone for this Jalaram Bapa murti is Makrana white marble, quarried in Nagaur district in Rajasthan and the same marble used in the Taj Mahal. Its grain is fine and crystalline, compact enough to hold the small detail this figure depends on — the wound folds of the turban, the separated strands of the beard, the buttoned front of the kediyu and the gathered mouth of the jholi. Grey hairline veining crosses less than five per cent of the surface and never runs wider than a pencil line, so the piece reads as one clean white mass from across a room rather than as a patterned stone.

The surface is taken to a soft satin polish. That gives the drapery a low, even glow while keeping the face and hands matte enough to read clearly; a full mirror polish would throw hard highlights across the beard and flatten the carving that makes it recognisable.

Sizing it for a home mandir

At 24 inches the Jalaram Bapa murti is sized for a dedicated mandir shelf or a pooja alcove rather than a tabletop. It measures roughly 7 inches across and 7 inches deep at the plinth and weighs about 12 kg, so it wants a shelf that is genuinely load-bearing — a marble ledge, a solid wood plank or a masonry niche rather than a floating bracket. Leave a clear 8 inches of depth so the danda and the raised hand are not pressed against the back wall.

The lotus-carved plinth is part of the carving. It lifts the figure clear of the shelf surface and holds the face at eye level for someone seated for aarti. Gujarati households usually keep Jalaram Bapa alongside the family ishta-devata rather than on his own, so leave lateral room if a second murti will stand beside him.

Making it yours

Every Jalaram Bapa murti here is made to order, so the specification above is a starting point rather than a fixed catalogue item. The master sculptors we work with in Jaipur carve it to the size you need — the same standing ashirwad form works from 12 inches for a compact alcove up to 48 inches for a community hall or a Jalaram Jayanti installation. The stone can change to Vietnam white marble for a cooler, brighter white, and the finish can move from this satin polish to a full mirror polish.

Two requests come up often on this murti: hand-painted treatment of the tilak, the kanthi and the turban edge, and a family name or dedication line cut into the plinth face. Both are straightforward to add. Send us a photograph of the shelf it will stand on and we will tell you which scale sits right in that space.