The mysterious temple of rats in Rajasthan
Bikaner offers notable cultural sites and religious landmarks within the city and on the outskirts. One such fascinating site is the Karni Mata Temple located just about 30kms away from Bikaner, in the north Indian state of Rajasthan that attracts thousands of pilgrims from across the globe to witness a very unique culture of worshipping rats. Freaky isn’t it?
Mysteriously seen, everywhere in the temple of Karni Mata are long-tailed rodents. Â The entire place can be seen sheltered with rats or Kabas as they are called in the local language. The Karni Devi Temple houses around 20,000 rats that are considered to be sacred and are fed and worshipped by the worshippers. Â The temple is not so ancient and was built by Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner in 20th century.
While entering the temple one has to be barefooted or move on tippy-toes because of the rats, and you have to be very much careful not to step on them. They may be seen on the doors, windows, peeping through the holes, flitting around the whole premises of the temple these rodents are actually auspicious.