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It is the only place in the world where rats are worshipped.
Karni Mata Temple draws people in droves to pay obeisance to rodents, writes
Nutan Sehgal
Rats may be the dreaded carriers of plague but don’t say anything nasty about this pesky rodent in front of a Rajasthani. He would frown at you — even turn ratty — if you were to talk ill of the species. Because rats are closely identified with Karni Mata, a 14th century mystic and an incarnation of Goddess Durga, one of the most revered deities in the desert state of India. The temple built in memory of Goddess Karni Mata, official deity of the royal family of Jodhpur and Bikaner, is situated at Deshnoke, around 30 km from Bikaner. It is quite unique as it has a huge population of rats. These resident rats evoke veneration almost on a par with the vermilion image of the holy deity inside the shrine. The only one of its kind in the world, the temple of rats was built by Maharaja Ganga Singh in the early 20th century and draws people by droves. They come to pray to the Goddess and also to the rats — or the Kabas, as the rodents are called here. In fact, once you enter the inner courtyard, the splendid architecture becomes secondary. What grabs attention is rats — over 20,000 of them scurrying around, dashing between the legs of unsuspecting devotees, unsettling them for a while. Children shriek in sheer fright and a few women are terrified at the sight.
Defying disbelievers Most of the time the rats are busy either merrily feeding on the prasad of sweets piled up on a giant plate inside the sanctum or sipping milk from the brass bowls placed at strategic points inside the temple complex. Visitors are cautioned not to harm the rats in any way. If some one tramples on one by accident, killing it in the process, he or she is expected to atone for the act by presenting a silver replica to the goddess. How the rats came to be constant companions of Goddess Karni Mata is a fascinating story. The goddess is said to have raised water from the desert sands and planted berry bushes to save the fauna. As a tribute, the locals built a temple in her honour in Deshnok near Bikaner — the region where she had spread the greenery. But how did the rats find a haven in this temple? According to a legend, when a child of one of her clansmen died, it caused great distress all over the land. So Karni Mata pleaded with Yama, the God of death, to restore the child back to life, since the young life was needed on the earth. Kaliashdan Shiva Datta Ujwal, who has written the biography of the goddess titled, Bhagwati Shri Karniji Maharaj, says that the devotees come not just from Rajasthan but also from Kutch and Kathiawar in Gujarat and Sindh in Pakistan. These devotees coming from far and wide have kept alive the worship of Karni Mata and the reverence that the rats get here. Which is why the Goddess occupies an exalted status in Rajasthani psyche. Most Rajput kingdoms have had their own special tutelage deities, but by and large, the Rajputs as a whole and the Rathore dynasty that ruled over Jodhpur and Bikaner, in particular, have given the Deshnoke temple a premier status in the entire desert state.
— NF
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However, her intervention came late, since the soul of the child had already taken rebirth. In anger she decreed that from that point onward, all of her tribes’ people would be reborn as rats, until they could be born back into the clan. And till the time they existed as rats they would be guests at her temple in Deshnoke. 