Handcrafted Vietnam White Marble Khatu Shyam Ji Seated Singhasan Murti, 18in

Shyam Baba seated in darshan

Khatu Shyam Ji is Barbarika, son of Ghatotkacha and grandson of Bhima, who gave his head in daan before the Mahabharata war and was blessed by Krishna to be worshipped through Kali Yuga by Krishna's own name. Because that story belongs to a youth, the murti is carved young: a boyish, beardless face, softly rounded cheeks and the steady half-smile that devotees at Khatu know as Haare ka Sahara, the support of the defeated. This piece shows him seated in full darshan on a singhasan, the right hand raised in ashirwad and the left resting easy on the knee, both feet forward on the lotus step of the throne.

The identifying marks are carved rather than painted on: a tall mukut crowned with a single peacock plume, the vertical tilak on the forehead, and two long garlands falling to the waist. There is no flute in these hands. The flute belongs to Krishna's own iconography, and Shyam Baba is shown here giving blessing.

The singhasan and the aureole

The throne is cut from the same block as the figure rather than assembled from parts, so the scrolled armrests, the pillared sides and the moulded seat read as one continuous run of stone. Behind the shoulders rises a carved prabhavali, a lotus-petal aureole worked in fine concentric bands, which is what gives an 18-inch murti the presence of a shrine instead of a shelf figure. The lotus-petal base underneath keeps the feet raised clear of whatever surface the murti stands on, the way a murti is meant to sit.

Vietnam white marble, softly polished

Vietnam white marble is a bright, cool, neutral white, cleaner and less creamy than Makrana, with a fine crystalline grain and very little veining. It takes a soft satin polish that glows under a diya instead of throwing a hard mirror reflection, which suits a murti that will be dressed, garlanded and touched daily. At 18 inches tall and roughly 40 kg, the piece is sized for a home mandir shelf or a wall niche, and it takes two people to lift into place.

Make it yours

Every piece is made to order. Tell us the height your mandir will take, whether you want the aureole left plain or deep-carved, and whether the tilak, the plume and the garland edges should be picked out in colour or left as bare stone. We design the brief with you, hand it to the master sculptors we work with in Jaipur, and follow the work through to your door. A commission at this size runs about eight to twelve weeks. If your date is tighter than that, ask us before you settle for another size: the sculptors we work with sometimes have a piece already carved, and we will send you photographs of the actual statue.