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| Karni Mata temple,Rajasthan,rats feeding on milk. flickr.com |
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| Karni Mata temple Rajasthan,India.wordspress.com |
Deshnoke
is a nondescript
tiny
village in the state of Rajasthan about 30 km from Bikaner. This
village located in the desert area has a unique
temple
dedicated to Karni Mata where thousands of critters
move or play around the temple freely with out fear and the visitors
to the temple do not harm them or disturb them. As
a matter of fact they
come to the temple with some good
food
or nuts to subdue their pangs of hunger and after praying
before the
presiding deity,
they
leave this place with full of joy and satisfaction
of having fed numerous creatures here.
Those critters are none other than rodents house rats which we,
in the urban areas shun them, chase them with a broom and poison
them. These denizens of ghettos and gutters are being treated like
VIPs and the rats have no fear of humans and move around all over the
place
without being disturbed.
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| KarniMata temple entrance,Rajasthan. |
In
this sub continent there are multitudes of strange customs, traditions, etc
but feeding thousands of rat, that too in a temple, is something odd or
unheard of. The
visitors, surprisingly,
take pride in giving them good food – not old rotten stuff
-
almost daily believing they are feeding their ancestors (pithroos
in Sanskrit).
In Hinduism it is an important duty of the people to remember their forefathers and every year they have to do ''thithi'' (shardham) - a sort of annual remembrance - to absolve of their sins. The belief is that their forefathers (who have become spirits now) will be pleased and come down to earth to partake of the food, bless them and their progeny.
For
their part, rats
eat the food to their heart's content,
live
happily with
no fear of food scarcity and
multiply. That,
this rodent temple is home to more than 20,000 rats will give you surprise.
It
is any
body's
guess what would happen to the farmers if these rats were out in the lush
paddy or wheat fields! Elsewhere in India several state goverments are spending lots of money to eradicate the menace of rats that devour food grains worth millions of dollars every year.
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