There is a lot of text here.The subject matter may be a tad uncomfortable for some. You are cautioned, there will be rat pictures here.
Rats are not the most liked of mammals for a variety of reasons. They carry the ominous burden of spreading diseases and destroying food grains. The primary response to a rat is revulsion and its removal from the visual cortex.
Deshnoke is a small temple town, about 30 kilo meters away from Bikaner in Rajasthan, India. Dust eddies swirl around chase each other in the trail left behind by motor cars. Most places in Rajasthan are barren and dry with scant grass climbing over large hill sides. Stone boundaries demarcate ownerships. It is a semi desert landscape of utter beauty and fascination and at times terrifying proportions for some.
As you reach Deshnoke, a fort like outer facade of ochre pink stands squat and low with bastions in the corner and gun emplacement slots peeping down at you. India's feudal structure demanded such forts from the marauding intentions of the neighbors as well as long term Muslim invaders from Central Asia. So there is a fort here too but I wonder if it was ever laid siege to. Not likely. It was built only around early 1900s by which time the British Empire was in total control of the Indian subcontinent.
The fortification served the purpose of hiding the temple from the prying eyes of humans and predators. Within lies the Karni Mata temple and about 15000-20000 rats that inhabit the courtyard. The rats are sacred. It is good manna if a rat scampers over your bare feet. If you manage to sight albino ones, then it is a sign of great fortune.
The temple was built in the early 1900 by the Maharaja of Bikaner who used to be a great patron and follower of Karni Mata. She was a wise and powerful lady with immense spiritual powers worshipped by the the lay populace as well as the Rajas in Rajasthan. We are talking of the late 14th and early 15th century here. She is supposed to have lived for about 150 years. Somewhere in her journeys, a young follower of hers lost his footstep near a water hole and drowned. The other followers beseech-ed Karni Mata to revive the young man. The Hindu God of Death who reaps the souls is called Yama and he comes astride a dark and sculpted buffalo with big horns.
The fortification served the purpose of hiding the temple from the prying eyes of humans and predators. Within lies the Karni Mata temple and about 15000-20000 rats that inhabit the courtyard. The rats are sacred. It is good manna if a rat scampers over your bare feet. If you manage to sight albino ones, then it is a sign of great fortune.
The temple was built in the early 1900 by the Maharaja of Bikaner who used to be a great patron and follower of Karni Mata. She was a wise and powerful lady with immense spiritual powers worshipped by the the lay populace as well as the Rajas in Rajasthan. We are talking of the late 14th and early 15th century here. She is supposed to have lived for about 150 years. Somewhere in her journeys, a young follower of hers lost his footstep near a water hole and drowned. The other followers beseech-ed Karni Mata to revive the young man. The Hindu God of Death who reaps the souls is called Yama and he comes astride a dark and sculpted buffalo with big horns.
Legend has it that Karni Devi would not allow Yama to perform his duties. A stalemate ensued. Ultimately a solution was arrived at. The God of Death passed on the soul of the dead boy into that of a rat and saved his face. From that day onward any member of the Charan community who died would be reborn as a rat and every time such a rat died, a Charan boy would be born. Re-Incarnation at full work here.
Rats from that day onward are revered by this community of Charans in this area of Rajasthan. The rats are the past as well as the future of the community of Charan male members. The white rats in the temple complex are supposed to be the direct descendents of the immediate family of Karni Mata whereas the others are the rest of the community members.
In the temple complex about 15000-20000 rats live. I have no idea when the census was done but these are just guesstimates over a period of time. Devotees come in daily and so do visitors who want to see this great terrifying spectacle of rats and the crazy worship. Most visitors must steel themselves to withstand the sight and the smell and get used to the idea of rats and their excrement on the floor. Now a days the visitors have the option to receive a cloth or a polythene sheath shaped like a shoe covering for the feet. It helps.
Writers and media people make frequent forays to present the exotic, arcane and bizarre to the world at large. One of the most terrifying experiences in the world as per the New York Post is a visit to the Rat Temple.
Not to be trapped in the listings game, I would say that the place leaves an indelible mark in one's mind for the sheer concept of it. The experience can not be termed "terrifying" for sure. More unsettling and unnerving maybe.What about you ?
The Outer Courtyard of the Rat Temple- Another view
This is a gateway in the fortification of the Rat Temple at Deshnoke near Bikaner in Rajasthan, India. It gives you a glimpse of the marble facade and gate of the actual temple complex. The courtyard has a mesh above to prevent the ingress of avian raptors for whole the rats would be an easy meal.
The temple was built in the early 20th century by Ganga Singh the erstwhile Maharaja of Bikaner. The Maharaja of Jodhpur was another ardent devotee of the Karni Mata but seems to have not made any monetary contributions towards making this temple.
Visiting this temple is one of the quirkiest experiences that one can imagine and experience in real life. You have to get used to the idea of rats and their negative imagery. Whether that is sufficient to actually make you feel comfortable is something best left to each individual visitor. All I can say is that it is not an easy adjustment process. The smell and general air is quite disquieting. At the end of it you wonder what you are doing there since you are not a believer but just a voyeur of the arcane Hindu practices. That feeling comes every time you visit a Hindu abode barring the isolated ones on the hills where there is no one else to disturb your communion with the Gods.
This is a gateway in the fortification of the Rat Temple at Deshnoke near Bikaner in Rajasthan, India. It gives you a glimpse of the marble facade and gate of the actual temple complex. The courtyard has a mesh above to prevent the ingress of avian raptors for whole the rats would be an easy meal.
The temple was built in the early 20th century by Ganga Singh the erstwhile Maharaja of Bikaner. The Maharaja of Jodhpur was another ardent devotee of the Karni Mata but seems to have not made any monetary contributions towards making this temple.
Visiting this temple is one of the quirkiest experiences that one can imagine and experience in real life. You have to get used to the idea of rats and their negative imagery. Whether that is sufficient to actually make you feel comfortable is something best left to each individual visitor. All I can say is that it is not an easy adjustment process. The smell and general air is quite disquieting. At the end of it you wonder what you are doing there since you are not a believer but just a voyeur of the arcane Hindu practices. That feeling comes every time you visit a Hindu abode barring the isolated ones on the hills where there is no one else to disturb your communion with the Gods.
A stout mouthed and stocky limbed mythical lion looks a little surprised at the goings on at the Rat Temple in Deshnoke. Perhaps it was intentional on the part of the silversmiths who made this or maybe I am seeing much too much into it.
The doorways are made of silver and animals stand out in bas relief. Intricate patterns and designs are repeated on the surface to make beautiful filigree work by the local silversmiths of the Bikaner area.
You can also find lions and elephants and other such carvings and statues of marble stone as well.
This is how the actual Temple building looks from front on. This has been shot at 12 mm and I have just about managed to squeeze the minarets and the cupolas in alongwith a few of the people going about with their daily routine in life. The space is best shot with maybe 10 mm on a non Dx lens.
This image here is purely to fill in the series on the quirky Rat Temple at Deshnoke.
This is how a make to path has been made by the temple authorities to have an orderly entrance to the sanctum sanctotum of the Rat Temple from its inner courtyard.
Temples in India are not the last refuge for peace and quiet and a heart to heart with your God. It is more a commercial arrangement where you offer money and food items to the God along with your prayers for success, wealth, children or whatever else one asks of Gods, including forgiveness for their misdeeds.
The idol of Karni Mata revered as an incarnation of Goddess Durga by the locals of Deshnoke area, lies in a recessed, dark sanctum sanctotum where only a priest minds the goings on at any given time while the devotees sit or line up outside waiting their turn to pass by the idol and seek the divine blessings.
It is difficult to take shots over the heads of the devotees in the dark interior lit up by a small flame of organic and perfumed bric a brac,
Rats can scamper freely in the sanctum sanctotum and you can see two oops three of them here.
One of the most terrifying experiences in the world as per the New York Post is a visit to the Rat Temple in Deshnoke in Rajasthan. 20000 rats roam freely and one has to enter bare feet and perhaps take a sip or two out of the milk pails where rat saliva and excreta is visble to the naked eyes. This is as per the article of the New York Post in October 2005. I do not have a copy of the magazine but this is quoted out of mentions on searches in Google.
Of late, in the last decade or so, lists have become a popular means in our lives to reduce everything into numerical absurdity.
I have no idea if drinking the milk is the done thing and going bare feet is a must. While I was there, the temple office was supplying feet coverings for the tourists. If you were a foreigner, you got white clean cloth slippers and if you were an India it was blue polythene sheaths. The local worshippers of course preferred to go in bare feet.
If one were to get trapped in the listings game, I would say that the place leaves an indelible mark in one's mind for the sheer concept of it. The experience can not be termed "terrifying" for sure. More unsettling and unnerving maybe.
What about you?
The large pail pictured here is not a milk pail. It is used for making food/ prasadam on special occasions in the temple. It just lies with a few other vessels in the courtyard of the temple complex.
At the Karni Devi temple in Rajasthan a priest and a devout follower of the goddess lies down prone licking the bare stone slabs while rats climb over him.
I guess the rats know him pretty good.
The price we pay for God is astronomical in terms of loss of common sense but it keeps the people content and happy with their fate on Planet Earth.
Here is another take of a keeper or a priest of the Charan community lying prostrate on the checkered floor work of the Rat Temple in Deshnoke, Rajasthan.
Rats run in from the openings in the wall to climb over him. While the half clad believer of Karni Mata utters his prayers and occasionally licks the floor, the rats scamper over him as if blessing him doubly.
