Makrana White Marble Shirdi Sai Baba on the Dwarkamai Stone, 24 in

There is only one photograph of Sai Baba seated on the stone at Dwarkamai, and it is the image almost every devotee carries in their head: the right leg drawn up and crossed over the left thigh, the right foot pushed forward so it can be touched, the left hand resting easily on that foot, the head cloth wound and knotted so its tail falls across the left shoulder. This carving follows that photograph closely rather than softening it into a generic saint, because the recognition is the whole point of keeping Baba at home. Makrana white marble is the stone Rajasthan has given its devotional figures for four centuries — brilliant neutral white with the faintest cream in it, fine and crystalline in the grain, dense enough to hold the fabric folds of the kafni robe without the edges going soft. The surface is taken to a soft satin polish rather than a mirror, and that is a deliberate choice for a shrine: satin holds the diya light instead of throwing it straight back, so the face stays readable from every angle in a niche. Every piece is carved to order by the master sculptors we work with in Jaipur. We design it with you, brief the sculptor on the posture and the proportions, and follow the work through to the day it reaches your door. At 24 inches the figure sits at roughly eye level on a standard shrine platform — the height most families ask for when Baba is meant to be looked at directly during aarti rather than looked up at from below. Placed in a home pooja room, the forward foot does real work. Charan darshan and charan sparsh are the gestures most closely associated with Baba, and a statue that tucks the foot away quietly removes them; here it is carved clear of the robe and finished on all sides. Devotees who keep Thursday worship usually want the figure free-standing on its own stone slab so it can be garlanded, wiped down and lamped without being lifted out of a shrine box. The same posture is carved anywhere from 12 inches up to about five feet, and the same form can be worked in Vietnam white marble for a cooler, brighter white, in black stone for a darker shrine, or cast in marble dust where weight matters. Send us the niche measurement and a note on the light it sits in, and we will quote the size, stone and finish that suit it.