A Temple in India Where Rats are Revered
Reverence for all living things is a special trait of Hinduism. But nothing prepares you for the freak show at this temple in Rajasthan overrun by thousands of overfed rats. There are more than 20,000 of them living within the temple precincts and people come from far and wide to pay them obeisance.
The temple is located in village Deshnok, 30 kilometres from Bikaner on the Jodhpur-Bikaner Highway. It is called the Karni Mata temple after the resident deity, the progenitor of the rats. There are perhaps as many legends about Karni Mata as they are rats, and like much of Hindu mythology the story changes with every narrator. According to the temple priest, Karni Mata lived in this village in the 14th century and was one of the reincarnations of Goddess Durga.
She was married but chose a celibate life and married off her husband to one of her younger sisters. When a son of one of her sisters drowned in a pond, Karni Mata took his body to Yama, the Hindu god of death, and pleaded for his life. At first Yama refused, citing the inevitable law of nature, but eventually yielded and promised Karni Mata that her sister’s son would be reincarnated as a rat.
The promise came true and after that all of Karni Mata’s relatives began to be reincarnated as rats. Read more here.....Where Rats are Revered
The temple is located in village Deshnok, 30 kilometres from Bikaner on the Jodhpur-Bikaner Highway. It is called the Karni Mata temple after the resident deity, the progenitor of the rats. There are perhaps as many legends about Karni Mata as they are rats, and like much of Hindu mythology the story changes with every narrator. According to the temple priest, Karni Mata lived in this village in the 14th century and was one of the reincarnations of Goddess Durga.
She was married but chose a celibate life and married off her husband to one of her younger sisters. When a son of one of her sisters drowned in a pond, Karni Mata took his body to Yama, the Hindu god of death, and pleaded for his life. At first Yama refused, citing the inevitable law of nature, but eventually yielded and promised Karni Mata that her sister’s son would be reincarnated as a rat.
The promise came true and after that all of Karni Mata’s relatives began to be reincarnated as rats. Read more here.....Where Rats are Revered
Labels: Bikaner, Goddess Durga, Hinduism, india, Jodhpur, Karni Mata, Rajasthan, Rats, Revered, Temple
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posted by Sancho at 2:15 PM
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