Makrana White Marble Moreshwar Ganpati with Cobra-Hood Prabhavali and Riddhi-Siddhi, 24 in

The Morgaon swaroop

Moreshwar of Morgaon is where the Ashtavinayak yatra begins and ends. The village sits on the Karha river in Pune district, and pilgrims on that circuit return to its sanctum before the journey counts as closed. The name carries the peacock — Mayureshwar — from the account in which Ganesha rode a peacock to subdue the demon Sindhu, and a stone peacock and a mushak both keep watch before the shrine. The Morgaon murti is seated, its trunk turned to the left, sheltered by a cobra hood, with Riddhi and Siddhi placed one on either side. This piece follows that arrangement rather than a generic seated Ganesh: the swaroop, the two consorts, the serpent canopy and both vahanas are what make it Moreshwar and not simply a Ganpati.

Reading the carving

Four arms, each doing something specific. The lower right is raised palm-outward in abhaya, the gesture of reassurance a devotee looks for first; the lower left holds a modak. The upper hands carry the ankush and the pash — the goad and the noose that classical Ganesh iconography places there. His right tusk is broken, the single tusk of Ekadanta, and the trunk curls to his own left, which is the direction most households prefer for a murti kept in daily worship. Behind him the prabhavali rises as a scrolled arch, crowned by a five-hooded Nagraj whose hoods fan across the top of the stele. At the plinth, the mushak sits to one side and the peacock stands forward. Riddhi and Siddhi are seated in full sari and choli, hands at rest.

Makrana white marble, finished by hand

Makrana comes out of the Nagaur district in Rajasthan and has been quarried there long enough that the Taj Mahal was built from it. It is a dense, fine-grained calcite marble with a bright neutral white body, a faint warmth to it, and thin grey veins that never widen past a pencil line. That density is why it holds a five-hooded serpent canopy and a scrolled arch without the detail going soft. The piece is carved for you by the master sculptors we work with in Jaipur — roughed out from a single block, then the faces, hands and drapery finished entirely by hand, and taken to a soft satin polish rather than a mirror. We design it with you, brief the sculptor, and follow it through to your door.

Sizing it for your mandir

At 24 inches tall, about 18 inches across and 8 inches deep, this is a murti for a built-in mandir niche or a substantial pooja shelf rather than a tabletop. It weighs close to 46 kg, so whatever it stands on has to be masonry, a stone slab, or hardwood with proper support — a light MDF unit will not carry it. Allow a few inches of clearance behind the prabhavali so the cobra hoods are not pressed against the wall, and set the plinth high enough that Ganesha's eyes land near your own when you stand before it. Many households keep the mandir in the north-east corner of the home, where a side window gives the scrollwork on the arch something to catch.

Make it yours

The same Moreshwar composition can be carved at other heights, in Vietnam white marble, black stone or Dholpur pink sandstone, or in cast marble dust for a lighter piece. The prabhavali can be simplified or opened into jali work, and the plinth can carry a carved family name. Send a photograph of the niche it is going into and we will size it to fit.