Handcrafted Makrana White Marble Veer Barbarika Teen Baan Dhari Murti, 15in

Barbarika, and the three arrows

Barbarika was the grandson of Bhima and the son of Ghatotkacha, and the three arrows he carried were a boon — enough, between them, to end the Mahabharata in a single day. Asked for his head in daan on the eve of the war, he gave it, and Krishna blessed him to be worshipped through the Kaliyuga by Krishna's own name, Shyam. The shrine stands at Khatu in Sikar district of Rajasthan, and devotees know him by two names above all others: Haare ka Sahara, the support of those who have lost, and Teen Baan Dhari, the bearer of three arrows. This murti is of that second name.

The archer form, before the boon

Most Khatu Shyam murtis a family already owns show the shish — the face alone, framed in an arch, as it appears in the sanctum. This piece takes the other tradition: Veer Barbarika standing whole, as the warrior youth he was before he gave his head. He stands feet together on a plain moulded plinth, with two arms and no more. A short recurve bow is held upright in one hand, and the three arrows are gathered in the other, fanned so that the heads and the fletchings both read clearly — the count is the identity, and it is carved to be counted. A quiver sits at the shoulder over a cross-body strap. His hair falls loose to the shoulders, his face is young and beardless, and a slender vertical tilak marks the forehead. No flute appears anywhere on the piece; that belongs to Krishna, not to Shyam Baba.

Makrana marble at close range

The stone is Makrana white marble, quarried in Nagaur district about 200 km west of Jaipur and the marble the Taj Mahal was faced with. It is calcite-dense and low in porosity, which is why it holds a cut edge for centuries instead of sugaring away — and at this scale that matters more than usual, since the bowstring, the arrow fletchings and the pleats of the dhoti are all cut only a few millimetres deep. It reads bright natural white with the faintest warm undertone and hairline grey veining. The surface is taken to a soft satin polish rather than a mirror gloss, so light settles into the carving instead of skidding off it, and the face keeps its softness when you are standing close.

A 15-inch murti on a mandir shelf

The murti stands 15 inches tall, measures about 6.5 inches across at the widest point of the bow, and is roughly 4.5 inches deep including the plinth. It weighs close to 5.5 kg, so an ordinary wooden or marble shelf carries it without a bracket and one person can place it. Two things are worth checking against your mandir before you settle on this height: the bow needs clear headroom, so measure the opening rather than the shelf, and a chowki that lifts the murti to about 32 inches from the floor brings the face level with the eye of someone seated for aarti.

Made to your brief

Every piece is made to order. Tell us the height you have room for, the stone you want it in — Makrana white as shown, Vietnam white marble for a cooler and more even white, or black stone if you want the bow and the drapery to read as light on dark — and whether the plinth should be plain or moulded, and we design it with you before anything is cut. It is then carved for you by the master sculptors we work with in and around Jaipur, and a fresh commission of this kind runs 8 to 12 weeks. A murti in this form may already be carved and standing with one of the sculptors we work with; we ask, and send you photographs of the actual piece, so there is no carving wait. Tell us the date you are working toward and we will say which of the two you are looking at.