Karni Mata the Temple of Rats
Most of you, I’m sure, have heard of the Karni Mata Temple, commonly referred to as the Temple of Rats. But have you ever wondered what makes it a temple of rats, or why rats are worshipped there? Obviously, there had to be a legend behind it, and we will unravel it in this article.
We should take a moment to examine the historical context of the temple before starting the story. His Majesty Maharaja Karan Singh was behind the construction of this temple. The Maharaja built this for safety and to define Udaipur’s boundaries. The temple lay abandoned until 1997 when a committee decided to renovate it. Renovating is still underway though. On one of the walls of the temple, to the left of the stairway, is a fascinating structure. The facts suggest that kings used to use those holes for hunting by putting their guns through them.
The legend Says
Ridhu Bai was a woman born in the year 1387 AD in a village named Suwap in the Jodhpur district. Her family belonged to the Charan Rajput Clan of the period and she was their seventh daughter. She was a Hindu sage who many regarded as the incarnation of Goddess Durga.
A man by the name of Depoji Charan got married to Ridhu Bai. They lived in Sathika village together. However, after two years of living together, Ridhu Bai decided to leave her husband and live a life of a Nomad. Thus, in the urge of leaving worldly affairs behind, she married off her sister to Depoji Charan and left.
Journey to Deshnok
Since Ridhu Bai was already taken as the incarnation of the goddess of Durga, she had her group of followers. And after leaving her worldly life behind, she together with her followers wandered around sometime. One day, they finally reached Deshnok and decided to settle there. This was the place where she became Karni Mata from Ridhu Bai. I know that the story hasn’t relinquished your curiosity and thirst for knowledge about the rats. So, let’s begin. Well, the legend has that one day Laxman, one of the stepsons of Karni Mata fell into the Kapil Sarovar in Kolayat Tehsil while trying to drink water from it. Unfortunately, the boy died from the incident.
Incarnation of Laxman
Karni Mata did not want to give up on her stepson. She pleaded with the god of death to retrieve her son back to her. Interestingly, the god heard her pleading. He permitted Laxman to be incarnated as a rat. Moreover, not only Laxman, but he also permitted all of her sons to be incarnated as rats. Today the temple has a population of 25,000 rats. Not only the story of these rats but what makes them more intriguing is their name. Yes, they have a name as well which is Kabbas.
These Kabbas are of course considered sacred and holy because of their background story. And people feed them different types of sweets and other foods. Above all, the food bitten by Kabbas is also considered prestigious. Moving back to the story, Karni Mata along with her followers was travelling when they halted as she needed to drink water near Kolayat Tehsil. When it was quite late for her to return, the followers went to see her. However, they could not find her there. So the search began but she was never found. Thus, she just disappeared like air. She was in her 151 years of age at that time.
Another Famous Folklore
According to the second folklore, about 20,000 soldiers abandoned a battle and returned to Deshnok to take shelter for the sake of their lives. Karni Mata however did not like this act as she believed it was wrong to run from the battle. She viewed it as a sin to abandon the responsibility which is what those soldiers did. She was hence furious and decided to give them the death penalty as a token of punishment. But, later on, Karni Mata felt pity for them and she turned them into rats instead of giving them the death penalty. The soldiers were grateful that their lives were spared and they promised to serve her forever in the form of rats.
Other Interesting Facts
- It is believed that the white rat is the manifestation of Karni Mata herself. Though the white rat is a rare sighting, it is considered lucky if you get a glimpse of it.
- Did you know that the temple has been featured in an American reality show named The Amazing Race?
- Morgan Spurlock also made a documentary film on it.
- So many debates often take place regarding the existence of the rats in the temple, but strangely there has been no case of spreading plague from that huge population.
- Fascinatingly, when a rat dies in the temple, a new rat made up of silver is placed to replace the dead one.
Author: Simran K Parmar
A post graduate in English Literature, secular humanist, critical thinker, an outspoken atheist, follower of equality and a lover of philosophy. craftedfashion94@gmail.com
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