Handcrafted Vietnam White Marble Gangadhara Shiva Statue, 30in

The moment the river is caught

Gangadhara shows one instant rather than a state of being. The Ganga is coming down from heaven with force enough to split the earth, and Shiva steps under it and takes the whole river into his matted hair, letting it out slowly as a stream a person can drink from. Sculptors render that instant literally: one upper hand lifts a single lock of the jata clear of the head, and inside that lock sits Ganga herself, a small crowned figure amid carved water.

The other upper hand holds the trishul. The lower right is raised in abhaya mudra, the gesture of no-fear, and the lower left rests at the hip. Four arms, no more. He stands in a gentle tribhanga on a lotus pedestal, with a serpent at the throat, a crescent set in the jata, and rudraksha across the chest over the sacred thread.

Why this form is carved in white

The whole point of the form is the water, and water carved in stone reads through light rather than colour. Vietnam white marble is cooler and whiter than the warmer Indian marbles, and on the fall of the jata and the carved stream that coolness keeps the strands separate instead of letting them merge into one mass. A soft satin polish holds the detail without throwing the hard specular highlights that would flatten the hair.

This stone is calibrated against real reference pieces before carving begins, so the white you see is the white you get rather than a warmer or greyer batch.

Size, weight and where it sits

Thirty inches standing, about 13 inches across and 11 deep, and roughly 58 kilograms on the lotus base. It reads best with height and a little space around it — a niche, a console against a plain wall, or a pooja room corner where the raised arm is not crowded by a shelf above. Below about 18 inches the Ganga figure in the jata stops being legible, so this is a form worth keeping reasonably large.

Make it yours

Stone, height, the finish and how deeply the water is cut are all open. The trishul can be carved integral or supplied separate, and the pedestal can be plain, lotus or stepped. Tell us the wall and the height you have and we will design it with you, brief the sculptor, and follow it through to delivery.

Expect eight to twelve weeks for a commission at this size and detail. If you need it sooner, tell us the date — there may be a carved piece already with one of the sculptors we work with, and we will ask and send photographs of that actual statue.