Handcrafted Makrana White Marble Two-Tier Shikhar Temple for Home, 72in

The two-tier shikhar

The spire is what separates this mandir from a domed one. Two tapering tiers of stone rise above the sanctum, each ringed with a course of miniature urushringa turrets, and the climb finishes in a fluted amalaka disc under a kalash finial. That stepped profile follows the Nagara temple grammar of northern and western India — the same vocabulary carried on the sikhara of a Rajasthani or Gujarati shrine, scaled to a form that fits under a domestic ceiling. Below the spire sits a double-door sanctum: two panelled marble doors on a pillared front, a cusped multifoil arch across the opening, carved brackets at every capital, and pierced jali screens in the side bays so light passes through the chamber instead of stopping at it. At 72 inches the spire reads clearly from across a hall.

Makrana marble, and why shrines are built from it

Makrana comes out of the quarries of Nagaur district in Rajasthan, about a hundred kilometres from Jaipur, and has been worked continuously for centuries — it is the stone of the Taj Mahal and of a long line of Rajasthani temple architecture. For a mandir the practical argument is density: Makrana holds a crisp arris on a moulding, takes a fine jali without crumbling at the perforations, and ages toward warm ivory rather than yellowing. This piece is left honed rather than mirror-polished, so the surface stays matte and the carved shadow lines stay legible under ordinary room light. It is carved for you by the master sculptors we work with in Jaipur — rough cut, primary shape, arch and jali detail, then hand finishing on every moulding — and travels in numbered sections for assembly on site.

Installing a 72-inch mandir

Delivery arrives as a base platform, side walls, the sanctum frame, doors and the two spire tiers, each piece numbered against an assembly drawing. Two or three people set it. The base wants a level floor, and on an upper storey a position over a beam or a load-bearing wall rather than mid-span, since the assembled shrine runs about 216 kg. Leave roughly four inches of clearance behind the back panel for hand access while it goes together. The sanctum interior is left plain so the murti you already own — or one commissioned alongside — sits against quiet stone; a warm 2700K LED strip tucked behind the front arch lights the deity without throwing glare across the doors. The mandir ships without a deity.

Who this size suits

Seventy-two inches is a floor-standing shrine rather than a shelf piece. It wants about three and a half feet of wall width and a ceiling of nine feet or more for the spire to have air above it — a double-height entrance hall, a dedicated pooja room, or the end wall of a long corridor. In an apartment with standard ten-foot ceilings it will hold the room, which is usually the intention. Households that host regular aarti, and society or community mandirs where several people stand before the shrine at once, are the usual homes for this format. Where the ceiling is lower, the same double-door front works at 36 or 42 inches under a single dome.

Make it yours

Dimensions, the tier count on the spire, jali patterns, a floral stone inlay across the back panel and a hidden channel for lighting cable are all settled at order time. Ask for an engraved family name on the plinth if the mandir is a griha pravesh gift. Send us the room measurements and we will draw it to fit.