A Temple with an Infestation

Still sore from our camel excursion the past few days, we boarded a bus for the 7hr ride to Bikaner. Bikaner is another common place to depart for camel treks and originally we had bought a train ticket departing Bikaner because we were going to ride camels there but changed our plans last minute. Nonetheless, we still made it a stop on our loop of Rajasthan.

Bikaner is much larger than Jaisalmer and does not seem to have much in the way of infrastructure for tourists, although our hotel (harasar haveli) was one of the most comftorable in India yet. Most people simply pass through either on their way to Delhi or Jaisalmer. Those who do stop normally visit the infamous Karni Mata temple 30km south in the town of Deshok.

What makes the Karni Mata Temple unique is the thousands of holy rats scurrying around! These sacred rats are worshiped and fed by the people who come to pray at the temple. Sometimes they even share food with the rodents.

For anyone interested the history goes something along the lines of Yama refused to restore the life of Karni Mata’s son. Angrily, he set out to make sure Yama could not obtain any human souls so he reincarnated all dead storytellers souls as rats. I’m not sure what that all means but that is the history i’m told.

Locals were visiting the temple wearing their best dress and clearly this was a place of worship to them. Thus tourists must be respectful and remove their shoes when entering the temple. The latter was difficult for Lianna to get over but after some hesitation she entered, carefully watching her step. I’d suggest wearing old socks and simply throwing them out after especially if you are lucky enough to have a rodent scamper over your feet (very auspicious).

As strange as the Karni Mata temple is it got old within about a half hour and we got in our tuk tuk ( a car would have been better) for the bumpy ride back to Bikaner for a delicious meal at a Tandoori restaurant.