It’s the start of the holy period of Navratri 2020 and the tales of miracles remain incomplete without the mentioning of the World Famous Karni Mata Temple, Deshnok, Jodhpur (Rajasthan), also called as the Rat Temple where thousands of rats live along with the deity.
Devotees are amazed to see rats crawling on the deity’s statue, floor, temple bells and just everywhere. In spite of thousands of rats, plague has not touched this holy miraculous temple, but people suffering from plague are brought here and they get miraculously healed. Such is the power of divinity.
Let’s take a thorough sojourn to this temple:
1. The renowned Karni Mata temple or the “temple of rats” is situated at Deshnoke, 30 km ahead from Bikaner in Rajasthan in India.
2. The temple has over 20,000 black rats which are revered, considered holy and are called as “kabbas”.
3. Many people visit this temple from distant locations just to pay their respect to these rats and get their ‘darshan’. In fact, the temple witnesses a huge number of visitors as well as the curious tourists from all over India due to the presence of these miraculous “rats”.
3. The temple has been designed in Mughal style with a beautiful marble facade consisting of doors of solid silver which is built by Maharaja Ganga Singh. Across the doorway, many more silver doors with panels speak various legends of the Goddess.
4. The inner sanctum has the shrine of the Goddess. In 1999, the temple was beautified by the Hyderabad based jeweler Kundanlal Verma who donated the marble carvings and the silver rats to the temple.
5. According to the folklore, once upon a time, an army of 20,000 soldiers were deserted in a nearby battle and they came to the village of Deshnoke. Karni Mata, after learning about the sins of desertion, spared their lives turning them into rats. The soldiers paying gratitude in return, promised the goddess to serve her forever.
6. There are a few white rats among those black rats who are believed to be Karni Mata and her four sons.
Karni Mata Temple’s History
The temple is famous for the legendary stories and folklores and is believed to be a place of high faith where people come to seek the blessing of the goddess. It is believed here that if a rat is killed by someone, he should replace it with a silver rat. The temple construction was completed in the early 20th century.
How to get there
Buses, trains and taxis are available to reach this place. Even the road towards the temple is comfortable and accessible.