Karni Mata Temple: Worship the rats inside along with the idol

I get excited when someone asks me about by hobby. It’s great! I feel proud to say that traveling various places and exploring various attractions is my hobby. This may be very rare, but is really fascinating. A hobby that has power to change your life will always be the first priority of mine. I love discovering something that is present in this world and being a traveller, I went to India just to see what the country has to offer to me.

Well, no doubt, India is a religious country where many different temples and holy sites could be found. Exploring the old and amazing architectural temple has become my target this time for which I went to the state of Rajasthan in India. Rajasthan has many great temples that are worth exploring. There is a reason behind visiting Rajasthan. After my visit to Mumbai, a famous city of India, I heard from one person that there is a rat temple located in the state of Rajasthan. This put my mind into huge debate and queries – why rat temple?

In India, you will get many temples that are made for its kind of speciality as the one I explored in Rajasthan – Karni Mata Temple aka The Rat Temple of Rajasthan. Bikaner is famous for the camel safaris and its stunning fort in Rajasthan, but the one, which is truly unique is the temple located in the town of Deshnok. The temple finally won to attract us to its area and to explore its amazingly beautiful features covered with history. I was along with my group of friends, who wanted to explore the same as me with full enthusiasm.

Perhaps the Karni Mata Temple is among the strangest attractions of India, which has a unique feature. At the temple, you will be amazed to see thousands of rats roaming here and there. The temple is a major attraction of Bikaner where rats and pilgrims make regular trips to the town. Moving back to the history of the temple and its idol, you should take a guided tour that will give you complete information and history in detail. The idol inside the temple is of Karni Mata and so the name of the temple. Karni Mata was a Hindu born female who is believed to be the incarnation of the Durga goddess.

People blindly believe and worship the Karni Mata. She laid the foundation stone of two significant forts in Rajputana. Until the last breath of her life, she lived an austere life and the temples were the examples of her existence with power. The temples were devoted to Karni Mata and her lifetime, out of which the most renowned is the temple of Deshnoke. The temple was built as per the inexplicable disappearance of Karni Mata from her home. The temple is more famous because of the rats that are treated as sacred and are given complete protection.

The Karni Mata temple, which is located in Deshnoke lies at a distance of 30 kilometres from Bikaner. The temple is still in its original form that was completed building during the early 20th century. The architecture of the temple is of Mughal style and was made by Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner. After his period, the temple was further improved by the Hyderabad based Karni Jewellers named Kundanlal Verma in the year 1999. The superb and giant silver gates of the temple and the marble carvings are offered as donation from Kundanlal Verma.

The karni Mata Temple or the Rat Temple of Rajasthan is so popular that tourists from every corner of India come to visit and explore its uniqueness. Apart from the state of Rajasthan, Karni Mata is respected in other places like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Haryana. During the occasion of Navratri, thousands of people visit the temple on bare foot and many with bare foot. What is more amazing is that if a single rat is killed then it should be replaced with the other made up of solid gold. Well, if you see a white rat among the groups of black rats then it is considered as specially fortunate.

Listening and exploring with the guided tour was really fascinating and great. I am looking forward to explore some more amazing temples in India and get captivated. The Karni Mata temple and thousands of rats will be always remembered.