The nation of India is a land of countless amazing and beautiful temples. From the majesty of the Taj Mahal to the smaller holy sites that dot both the countryside and urban areas, there’s a place to suit just about everyone’s worshipping needs. Even those who pray to rats. That’s right. We said rats.
The Karni Mata Temple in the small town of Deshnoke, within the northern state of Rajasthan, also goes by the charming name “The Rat Temple.” And no, that’s not a euphemism for a place where talkative mobsters go to pray after they squeal to the feds. Making the temple dedicated to Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, look downright sanitary, Karni Mata is home to 25,000 black rats (which are referred to as kabbas, meaning “little children”). Contrary to common sense, it draws thousands of devout and curious visitors from not just India but around the world. You’re welcome to feed treats to the holy rodents, just so long as you don’t mind a little ankle nibbling. When that does inevitably occur, do your utmost to keep any stomping impulses in check, as any dead Rattus rattus must be replaced with a rat statue made out of solid silver.
How did this house of rodential reverence come to be? As legend has it, the individual for whom the temple was named, Karni Mata, was a woman who lived during the fourteenth century. She ordered Yama, the God of Death, to resurrect her son after he died in a drowning accident. Yama claimed that he was unable to do so, but that Karni Mata herself could do so because she was an incarnation of Durga, a principal Hindu goddess. So she did, and as a bonus made things so that her family members would all be reincarnated as rats and could no longer die. Whether that’s a fair trade-off or not depends on your tolerance for pestilence and hairless tails. And why she didn’t choose an animal a bit more aesthetically pleasing, like, say, a toad, is a mystery for the ages. To this day somewhere around six hundred families in the area claim to be descendants of Karni Mata and look forward to an eternity of scritching and scurrying.
A Golden Rat
You can also replace a rat you inadvertently squished with a replica made out of gold. How much will that run you? Well, the average adult black rat, not taking into account how fat the ones at the temple must be, weighs around twelve ounces. And let’s say the current price of gold, which can fluctuate, is $1,300 per ounce. That would total up to $15,600. Our advice: Wear moccasins or some sort of bunny slippers before entering.
Interspersed among the multitudes of black rats are a very few white ones. They’re considered to be extra-holy, and if you see one you get a special blessing. So to encourage them to make an appearance visitors put out a sweet, holy food called prasad. A can of pressurized processed cheese spread may be a cheaper option but would admittedly be less holy.
Maharaja Mouthful
Singh’s full title is, get ready for it…General His Highness Maharajadhiraj Raj-Rajeshwar Narendra Shiromani Maharaja Sir Ganga Singh Bahadur, Maharaja of Bikaner, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, GBE, KCB. But you can call him “Big G” for short. What’s he going to do about it? He’s dead.
You’ll have to get up bright and early to be the first in, as doors open at 4:00 a.m. But once inside, you’ll be able to witness priests offering the rats a special worship food called bhog and show your appreciation by donating dwar-bhent to the religious staff and workers, or kalash-bhent for maintenance and development costs. Or you could just cut out the middleman and pelt the rats with rupees when they get too close. Actually, you probably shouldn’t do that.
The man responsible for bringing forth this monument to bewhiskered plague-carriers was General Maharaja Sir Ganga Singh (1880–1943), who is remembered as a reformer and visionary. In addition to founding colleges for women, introducing modern railroads and electric grids, and introducing prison reforms, he also successfully managed a terrible famine that occurred in the state of Bikaner. Perhaps it was the prison and the famine that led to his love affair with the lowly rat? Whatever the reason, he commissioned the creation of the temple’s beautiful marble architecture and donated the stately silver doors, emblazoned with images of rat-related legends, at the entrance to the inner sanctum.
Today the best time to visit the Karni Mata Temple and have a rat run across your feet (which is considered very auspicious indeed) is during two annual festivals. The first fair is the bigger one and is held somewhere between the months of March and April during the “Navratras from Chaitra Shukla Ekam to Chaitra Shukla Dashmi.” The second fair happens between September and October, also during the Navratras, from “Ashvin Shukla to Ashwin Shukla Dashmi.” If you’d like to look up what all that means, you can find an article on Travelers Today that describes the whole thing. At any rate, once there, you can follow in the footsteps of the devotees to the rodent goddess and also the contestants in an exceptionally verminous season of the reality show The Amazing Race. Oh, and Morgan Spurlock was also there in 2016 to film a documentary called Rats. Which makes a whole lot of sense. But unless you suffer from a severe case of musophobia (fear of rats and mice), the fear of hideous rodent-borne pathogens shouldn’t deter you from stopping by for a look. Believe it or not, there’s no recorded case of anyone ever getting the plague from being in close contact with the rats. Plus, there’s likely a whole lot less poop in the air than at the temple for that monkey god.
