A place for worship and prayer, without having to leave home

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In the Dallas suburbs, Sangeeta Kulkarni lights an oil lamp in front of a wooden structure housing idols in her kitchen. The newly renovated area is dedicated to prayer and is backed by gold-and-white tiles matching the gilded trim and the white quartz countertop, the 41-year-old said.

Practitioners of Hinduism, particularly in India, have long-created pooja rooms or areas in their homes; the word pooja, sometimes spelled puja, refers to the Sanskrit word for worship. A pooja room usually has an altar, mandir or table supporting idols and pictures of Hindu gods. They are used for solitary or communal prayer, worship and meditation, and are often decorated for special ceremonies during festivals such as Diwali, said Pallavi Chhelavda, a consultant in Vastu Shastra, a set of architectural-design principles based on Indian traditions.

As the population of Indian-Americans in the U.S. has grown, more interior designers, home builders and developers are specializing in accommodating the demand for pooja rooms. Do-it-yourself pooja-room decoration tutorials are popular on social media.

A fixture on Mindy Kaling’s hit Netflix comedy “Never Have I Ever," about a first-generation Indian-American teenager, were scenes of prayer in front of the Vishwakumar family’s pooja area—an armoire filled with pictures and statues of deities. Some homeowners have dedicated 400-square-foot backyard structures as pooja rooms and outfitted them in marble and custom murals, with budgets topping $100,000. “Growing up in the U.S., we never saw people like us.