Charan Padukas

About

A charan paduka is the deity's feet, kept in place of the figure Paduka is the everyday word for a sandal, charan is the feet, and a charan paduka is the deity's feet sculpted and honoured as the object of worship instead of a likeness of the deity. That sounds like a substitute for a murti and it is not one. It is a form of worship with a long lineage of its own. Bharata set Rama's padukas on the throne at Ayodhya and governed in their name for fourteen years, which is the story most people half remember. Pilgrims at Gaya take darshan of the Vishnupad, the footprint of Vishnu in stone. A teacher's lineage passes through his padukas, which is what the Guru Paduka Stotram is addressed to. In each case the feet are enough on their own, because the feet are the part a devotee actually touches. That is the practical difference too. A murti is looked at from a respectful distance and kept where it will not be knocked. A paduka is low, flat and meant to be touched, and for a good number of households that is the thing that decides it. Two different objects share the name Search for charan paduka and roughly half of what comes back is wooden khadau: the toe knob sandals worn by ascetics, kept for a guru and sold in wearable sizes for men. The rest is what is on this page, the sculpted footprints, cast small and finished in metal, meant to sit at an entrance or in the mandir. Both are correctly called padukas and the two get confused constantly. If it is wooden khadau you want, for guru pooja on Guru Purnima or a tiny pair for a Laddu Gopal, we do not make them, and you will be better served elsewhere. Whose feet we make, and it is a short list Maa Lakshmi's is the one most households come for, since footprints at the door read as prosperity walking in. Hers is the larger piece at around three inches, gold and silver plated. Balaji's charan carries the shankha, the chakra and the namam, which is the Tirumala form, and it is the smaller piece at around two inches in gold pla