Nathdwara Shrinathji Murti in Black Marble with Carved Stele, 18 in

At Nathdwara in Mewar, the Shrinathji swaroop is a single dark stone image, and the arched stele behind him carries a fixed cast of creatures — two cows, a lion, a snake, two peacocks and a parrot. This 18-inch murti reproduces that stele in full rather than isolating the figure, so nothing of the Nathdwara composition is lost. The black marble is quarried in the Markapur belt of Andhra Pradesh, a dense, close-grained stone with almost no visible veining, which is why it holds an even darkness across a panel this size instead of breaking into patches. Carving begins with the slab outline and the cusped arch, after which the swaroop is raised in high relief while the fauna are cut back into a shallower plane so the child form stays dominant. The master sculptors we work with in Jaipur finish the face, the raised arm and the jewellery entirely by hand — no machine tooling goes near them — before the surface is taken through progressive grades to a mirror polish. We design the piece with you, brief the sculptor, and follow it through to your door. Every element of the pose is doctrinal. The left arm lifts overhead in the gesture of raising Govardhan; the right hand is a closed fist at the waist with the thumb turned out, the hand that steadied the hill. Shrinathji is shown as a child of about seven, which is why the limbs are short and the cheeks full — an adolescent or adult reading would be wrong. The cows are the herds of Vraj, the lion and the snake belong to Govardhan hill itself, and the birds sit in the foliage worked around the arch. An 18-inch stele suits a home mandir or a pooja-room niche rather than an open shelf. The panel wants a recess or a back wall behind it, and roughly a foot of clear height above the finial so the arch reads properly. Pushtimarg households usually keep the murti at eye level when seated, with a diya at the base. The flat back lets it stand against a wall without a separate stand. Sizes from 6 inches up to full-height stele panels can be made, in Makrana white marble, Vietnam white marble, Dholpur pink sandstone or cast marble dust, and the swaroop can be hand-painted in the Nathdwara palette instead of left in natural stone. Message us on WhatsApp with your niche dimensions and we will work back from there.