Shirdi Sai Baba

Everything here is Shirdi Sai Baba, the fakir who lived at Shirdi in Maharashtra until 1918 and is shown seated with his right hand raised. He is not Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, who died in 2011 and is shown standing in a saffron robe with a full head of hair. The two get confused often enough that it is worth checking before you buy. If the person you are buying for says Om Sai Ram and keeps Thursday, the Shirdi form is the one they mean.

You will see the name written as Sai Baba, Saibaba, Sai Nath and Shirdi Sai, and the object called a murti, moorti, murthi or simply a statue. In Hindi and Marathi people ask for Sai Baba ki murti. They all mean the same seated figure.

The posture is fixed, so judge the face and the hands

Almost every Sai Baba murti made anywhere is the same seated form: one leg crossed over the other, the right hand raised, the left at rest. That is not a stylistic choice. It is how he sat at Dwarkamai, the old mosque he lived in for sixty years beside the dhuni he kept burning there, and it is the image every devotee already carries. The raised hand is abhaya mudra, the gesture of reassurance.

Because the pose barely varies between makers, the pose tells you nothing about quality. What separates a good murti from a poor one is the face and the hands, and they are the first things a cheap process loses. The eyes should be open and level rather than smoothed shut, the beard and the folded cloth should hold their edges, and the fingers of the raised hand should be separated rather than fused into a mitten. Judge on the close photograph, not the wide one.

What we make, and what we do not

Three constructions, all at household scale. Solid brass from three to six inches, for a mandir shelf or a puja that involves water. Gold plated pocket temples, which are shrines that close, under two thousand. And a white and gold piece in marble dust, under ten thousand, for anyone who wants the marble look without a quarried statue.

What we do not do is worth saying, because a good deal of what is sold under this name is the opposite of us. We do not carve marble, and we make nothing at temple scale: nothing here is two feet, let alone six. We do not work in solid silver. If what you want is a life size white marble Baba for a hall or a public temple, that is a marble carver's work rather than ours, and you will be better served there.

Brass, plated or marble dust

Buy brass if the murti will be bathed, handled daily or kept for decades. It is solid brass, poured slowly into a mould made for that one idol and broken open once the metal has cooled, so every casting gets its own mould. That is why the detail holds around the beard and the raised fingers where a reusable sand mould softens it, and it is why the alloy has to be high grade, since a lesser brass will not fill the shape cleanly. Sand cast brass is a different and cheaper process, and it gives way first in exactly the places you were just told to look. Brass takes water, oil and kumkum, darkens to a surface oxide over the years, and cleans back with lemon and salt. See brass idols.

Buy plated if the piece is a gift, or if it will be looked at rather than washed. A plated piece is a resin core with a layer of copper over it and gold or silver electroplated on top, and on some pieces both. The copper is the layer that matters, because resin cannot be plated directly and the copper is what the precious metal keys onto. That construction is why these are light enough for a desk or a dashboard, why the detail stays crisp at a small size, and why water is the one thing that will lift the finish. Dry cloth only, and no abhishek. See gold and silver plated idols.

The white and gold piece is a resin core coated in marble dust, which is what gives it the surface and the weight of marble. Keep it dry and lift it by the base. It is the closest thing here to the marble Baba most people picture, at a size that fits a mandir rather than a courtyard. See the white and gold range.

Where he goes in the house

The advice usually given for Sai Baba differs from the advice given for most deities, and the difference is worth knowing before you choose a size. He is placed in the northeast of the room or the home, facing east or north, and at eye level rather than above head height. The reasoning offered is that the whole image is built around the direct look, so you should be able to meet it seated or standing rather than look up at it. Raise a small murti on a chowki to get there instead of buying a larger one.

Most homes keep him alongside their other deities rather than in a shrine of his own, which suits a teacher whose position was that the paths are one. If the mandir shelf is already full, a pocket temple on a desk or beside the bed is more practical than crowding it. See pooja essentials for the chowki, thali and diya that go around him, and pocket temples for the shrine that closes.

The car and the shop counter

Sai Baba draws unusually heavy demand for a dashboard and for a shop or office counter. Ask Google for a Sai Baba idol and a version for the car is among the first things it offers, which is true of very few deities. The small brass murtis are listed for that use as well as for the mandir. See car dashboard idols for the wider set of pieces sized for a dashboard.

One caution if you are buying brass for a vehicle. Brass is solid metal and heavy for its size, which is the opposite of what a dashboard wants. It needs a proper adhesive base or a mat, and it should be low and wide rather than tall. A light plated piece is the easier object in a car, and a pocket temple that closes is easier still, since it travels in the glovebox and comes out where it is needed.

Thursday, and giving one

Thursday is the day kept for Sai Baba, at Shirdi and in homes, with a lamp, dhoop and a reading from the Sai Satcharitra. It is the day to start keeping a new murti and the day to hand one over. Treat that as a real date to work back from rather than a nicety, because the week of it is too late for a specific finish.

He is among the safest devotional gifts there is. Because he is kept across communities and sits beside whatever else a household already keeps, you are unlikely to give something unwelcome or to duplicate a deity that is already on the shelf, which is the usual risk with giving an idol. The pocket temple is the gift that travels, for a desk, a hostel or a move. Brass is the gift meant to be kept for decades. Every piece is checked at our own warehouse before it goes out, and everything ships in our own packaging, made to be opened rather than merely to survive the journey, which counts when the thing is handed over in person.

For a new home see griha pravesh and housewarming gifts, and for the wider pantheon god idols and figurines. Where several are going out together, see corporate gifts or send the count and the date through the bulk order enquiry page.