Makrana White Marble Sai Baba on Singhasan Throne, 66 in

Makrana marble comes out of the Nagaur district of Rajasthan, from quarries worked long before the same stone was chosen to face the Taj Mahal. It is dense, low-porosity calcite that holds a crisp edge — which matters on a murti at this scale, where a single carved scroll on the throne back runs longer than a forearm. At 66 inches the murti sits at the same height as the white marble Sai Baba installed in the Samadhi Mandir at Shirdi in 1954, sculpted by Balaji Vasant Talim. That is the reference height Sai mandirs in Maharashtra and across the diaspora keep asking for. Carving happens in Jaipur, in the workshops of the master sculptor families we work with. The block is roughed down to the seated mass first; the singhasan and the stepped pedestal are blocked next, and only then is the drapery opened up. The face, the hands and the fall of the kafni are cut entirely by hand — no machine finishing goes anywhere near them — because a Baba murti lives or dies on the gaze. We design the piece with you, brief the sculptor, review it at the rough and finish stages, and follow it through to installation at your door. The pose is the Samadhi Mandir darshan form. Baba sits in relaxed authority on an ornately carved singhasan: right leg crossed over the left knee, right hand resting open on the raised knee, left hand at ease, the full-sleeved ankle-length kafni falling in deep folds, the head cloth wrapped and knotted so its end drops over the left shoulder. Lions flank the throne arms, as they do at Shirdi. Sai Baba (samadhi 1918) is honoured across Maharashtra and now well beyond it, and the 1954 murti is the visual grammar every Sai mandir works from — this carving keeps to it rather than inventing a new one. A 66-inch murti raised on a stepped platform reads correctly from roughly twelve feet back, so settle the mandap depth before the height. Allow a clear frontal darshan axis, ceiling room above the throne finial if a chhatra or canopy is planned, and a floor that will take about 580 kg once the pedestal is set. Satin-polished Makrana answers far better to warm lamp light raking in from the sides than to flat overhead lighting; most sanctums light it low. Sizes from tabletop to sanctum scale are made to order, and the same form can be carved in Vietnam white marble or black stone, with the throne kept plainer or worked more richly as your mandir trust prefers. An engraved dedication line on the pedestal is a common request on community installations.