May 21 2014, Day 26 of Garlanding India: Break Day at Bikaner; Part I After three days of driving through desert roads in the mid-summer heat, it felt heavenly sleeping the night in the extreme comfort of Azad’s house. The first thing I asked Azad is whether I had snored through the night… he said I had not and I was quick to believe him! Though it was a rest day we woke up early, had an early breakfast and set off at 7am itself because Azad had planned out a packed day of ‘Discover Bikaner’ for me! The breakfast was absolutely yummy! We headed south on the Nagaur Highway and after half an hour were at our first tour spot for the day, the fascinating Karni Mata Temple. The temple is dedicated to Karni Mata a female sage who is worshipped as the incarnation of Goddess Durga and who is the official deity of the royal families of Bikaner and Jodhpur. Karni Mata belonged to the Charan Caste. Members of the Charan caste are considered to be divine and women of the caste were revered as mother goddesses. Karni Mata was born on Oct 2 1387 and apparently disappeared at the age of 151 years, on March 23 1538 while traveling back to Deshnok after visiting the Maharaja of Jodhpur; she apparently asked the caravan to stop for water and then just disappeared! Karni Mata started being revered from the age of six when she apparently miraculously cured her aunt of a disease. She was widely revered by the Rajas and the common man; in 1457 she laid the cornerstone for the fort at Jodhpur and in 1485, at the age of 98, laid the foundation stone for the Bikaner Fort! That is the fascinating story of Karni Mata, but the temple at Deshnok dedicated to her, the Karni Mata Temple itself is fascinating. It is an ornate temple built in the early 1990s by Maharaja Ganga Singh. What is so unique about this temple? Admire the intricate marble panels at the entrance, cross the threshold and you enter a furry world; the temple is populated by 20,000 odd rats. The rats, called kabbas and considered holy, are all over the place: on the floor, on walls, on the grills, in the plate where offerings are made to the deity, on the machines that make the temple prasad. Azad asked me to drag my feet so that I do not inadvertently step on them.. I thought he was confirmed about I being bitten by the rats. No; the reason he told me to ensure that I do not step on a rat was that apparently if you step on a rat and kill it (which I would, given my weight!) you have to donate a golden replica to the temple! That scared me enough; I literally dragged my way through the temple! Apparently the rats are the dead tribesmen of Karni Mata’s clan who are reincarnated as rats until they could be born back into the clan; this was apparently a pact that had been struck between Yama, the God of Death and Karni Mata. Apparently of the thousands of rats four or five are white rats who are manifestations of Karni Mata herself and her close kin. Sighting white rats is considered to be particularly lucky… I was not lucky, I sighted none! Even having food previously sampled by rats is considered to be a blessing; but I didn’t do that either. There is a protective net put over the temple to protect the rats from the birds. This maybe the reason that though there are thousands of rats inside the temple there is not a single rat sighted once you cross the threshold and step out of the temple! By 830am we completed our tour of this unique temple and came out into the parking lot where Azad tempted me into having sugar cane juice. I was very scared of upsetting my tummy, but Azad tried mitigating the risk. He told me to observe the magic that he would work. He went and said something to the vendor who, upon hearing it, double washed the tumblers, squeezed in an extra lime and put some mint leaves. Apparently if you say you are on a religious fast all these services are rendered to you by the vendor for no extra cost!
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 04:26:46 +0000
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