Temple of rats!!

Heard of temple of rats? There is one such temple of Rats in Deshnok, Bikaner Rajasthan. The goddess of this temple is Karni Maa.

There are innumerous rats in the temple. These rats never go out of the temple. The intriguing facts are - no incidents of any diseases have been reported, no devotee has been attacked or bitten by the rats, and the temple doesn’t stink.

No baby rats are seen in the temple, all the rats seen are of the same size. No one has any clue of where these rats are breed :-).

Amazing fact is that. All the offerings like milk, sweets, groundnuts and waters are first fed (offered) to rats, and remaining food is distributed to the devotees as “Prasad”.

No devotee has fallen sick. In 90’s when plague hit Gujarat, people went to this temple to have water and milk drunk by these rats as medicines!!!

There are much folklore around the origin of Karni Ma and the temple. The most convincing is that, Shri Karni Mata is the incarnation of Goddess Durga. Karni Mata once tried to restore her dead stepson to life but failed, as Yama, the god of death had already accepted his soul and re-incarnated him in human form.

Karni Mata, famed for her legendary temper, was so inflamed by her failure that she announced that no one from her tribe would fall into Yama’s hands again. Instead, when they died all of them would temporarily inhabit the body of a rat before being reborn into the tribe.

Links:
http://www.karnimata.com

11 comments:

Balaji said...

I had heard of this temple before. But your summary is really good. May be one day will be able to go and see the temple.

phatichar said...

I remember seeing this on TV some time back..

Anonymous said...

I had seen this temple and know bit of history via some documentery I watched on here in UK few months ago. I would love to visit some day no idea when but sooner would be better.
Very nice post.

Itchingtowrite said...

strange.. hey liked the cube story too. poor u if it has happened to you

Ashish Agarwal said...

Finally, one thing on this post that I had heard before, and for which I do not need evidence to positively believe.

Mrudula Sreekanth said...

I had heard of this temple as well. I wouldn't have the prasada though. ;)

pavan kumar said...

Indian Tourism should sponsor your blog! nice find..

"..remaining food is distributed to the devotees as “Prasad”.." though that was little eerie, with due respects to the Gods.

Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr said...

I saw this in Ripley;s believe it or not....its strange but true....

Casey said...

yep! Have seen this on "travel & living", zee Tele, Sony and probably on Star Plus too. Every channel that has a "travel" based program features about this temple. I intend to visit this temple if I manage to go on my Rajasthan trip next year.

Vinutha and Lingaraj said...

Balaji: Sure you will go one day :-)

Phatichar: Yes, it has come up on many chaneels.

ekawaaz: Thanks :-)

itchingtowrite: Thank god! the incident didn't happen to me

Ashish: :-)

gini: come here we will go

Pavan: Thanks :-).. but if u watch how people take food from the palte rats are feeding and eat it.. it defeintly sends a chill down the spine.

arz00n: thanks for visiting my blog. :-)

Casy: You shud visit this temple and even the haunted city of rajasthan :-)

Anonymous said...

THat temple has been around for over 6 centuries and there were absolutely no diseases or plague. But recent plague out break blames this historic landmark. How come there were no diseases earlier but now? Isn't it making you wonder that there is something else or more? The present world has/created a lot more diseases and blames in on something else