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India

Karni Mata Rat Temple

Yama refused so Karni Mata said from that day forward that all storytellers who died would be turned to rats and revered at his temple so as to deny Yama of human souls.

Once we had exhausted the Meherangahr Fort and small alleyways of Jodhpur, we decided to take a 5 hour drive through the desert to Bikaner via Nagaur and Deshnot. Deshnot is renowned for its Karni Mata rat temple.

According to a 14th century legend, Karni Mata, a reincarnation of some Hindu God, asked the Hindu God of Death Yama for a favor: Karni Mata’s son, a story teller, had died (really died, no possibility for reincarnation for some reason) and he wanted him risen from the dead.

So… in we went! Our first question was who cleans up all the dead rats laying around? We thought it was very sweet that people fed the living rats, but what about the dead ones? Clearly a cultural perception, because we couldn't imagine there was some required ‘waiting period’ for reincarnation from a dead rat to something else (strike us down for being disrespectful and sacrilegious).

But we must not have offended anyone too badly, since - as we were leaving town and waiting for a train to pass - we saw both a holy cow and a traveling guru!

Rajasthan trip 2010:

Jodhpur - Jodhpur Fort - Jaswant Thada - Evening performance - Bishnoi - Nagpur - Karni Mata - Jain temples - Bikaner - Camel ride - Festival

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