Lakshmi Ganesh

This is the single most bought configuration in Indian gifting, and the default purchase for Diwali and for a new home. The reason is straightforward once stated: Ganapati is invoked at the beginning of any undertaking, and Lakshmi is associated with prosperity. Together they stand for a beginning that goes well, which is exactly what a new house or a new financial year is.

Some of our sets add Saraswati as a third figure, for learning. The Lakshmi Ganesh Saraswati grouping is the standard Diwali trio in much of North and West India, where the puja addresses all three.

Which side does each sit on

The convention most households follow is Ganesha on Lakshmi's left as you look at them, so that from the deities' own orientation Lakshmi is to Ganesha's right. Many of our sets are cast as a fixed pair, which settles it for you.

Worth saying plainly: this is widely followed custom, and we could not trace it to a text. It is sincerely kept in a great many families and it costs nothing to follow. It is not scripture, and a set placed the other way is not a mistake anyone will be punished for.

What we make

Fixed pairs on a shared base, which is the easiest thing to place and the hardest to get wrong. Separate figures that let you set the spacing yourself. Trios with Saraswati. A Lakshmi Ganesh diya set, where the deities are the lamps rather than the murtis, which is a genuinely good Diwali gift because it gets lit rather than only looked at. And a pocket temple that closes around the group for travel or a desk.

Sizes run from a 2.7 inch shelf set to a 10 inch antique pair. Some sets include elephants flanking the goddess, which is the Gajalakshmi form and one of the oldest attested in Indian art.

Measure the whole arrangement

The mistake specific to this collection. You are buying two or three figures, and the listed height belongs to the tallest one. Elephants, lotus bases and raised hands widen a set considerably, so check the full base width and leave clearance at both ends.

A pair also needs more depth than a single murti if the figures are set at any angle to each other. Measure the shelf, not just the wall.

Which material

Brass for a set that will be bathed or handled daily during puja, since it tolerates milk, water, kumkum and turmeric and cleans indefinitely. See brass idols.

Gold and silver plated for gifting and display: light, crisply detailed, arriving presentation-ready, needing only a dry cloth. Keep dry, no abhishek. See gold and silver plated idols.

Antique finish carries a patina applied deliberately, which suits larger pairs and reads as heirloom rather than new. Dry dusting only, because a cleaning paste strips the finish it was meant to restore. See antique finish idols.

Diwali and Dhanteras

This collection has one overwhelming season. Lakshmi Puja on Diwali night is the peak, and Dhanteras a few days before carries the custom of buying metal, which explicitly includes idols and not only utensils and bullion. That makes Dhanteras the one occasion where a solid brass set is the more traditionally apt purchase and a plated one the more decorative.

A practical note: buy early. Durables are traditionally bought on the day itself and stock thins fast in that week. See Dhanteras gifts and Diwali gifts.

As a gift

A Lakshmi Ganesh pair is the safest gift in the whole catalogue. It suits any Hindu household, it needs no knowledge of a family deity, and it is the expected thing for a new home. If you are buying one gift and know nothing about the recipient's practice, this is it.

See griha pravesh and housewarming gifts and wedding gifts; for volume, corporate gifts, bulk gift items or the bulk order enquiry page.

For each deity alone, Maa Lakshmi idols and Ganesha idols. To furnish the mandir, pooja essentials.

Before you order

• Measure the full arrangement, not the tallest figure. Elephants and lotus bases widen a set.
• Decide fixed pair or separate figures. A shared base is easier to place and to carry.
• For Dhanteras specifically, brass sits inside the buy-metal custom in a way plated resin does not.
• Antique finishes take dry dusting only.
• Buying for Diwali? Order ahead of the week, not during it.