Karni Mata Mela is a famous festival in India. This festival is dedicated to Divine Karna Mother. Worship of mother is considered auspicious by the people of the country. According to Hindu mythology, it is believed that there are supernatural powers in the Goddess. The festival is celebrated mainly in Deshnok. It is celebrated twice a year.
Karna Mata Mela is a great attraction for tourists. There are many cultural and religious programs in the fair. On the first day of the fair, the temple is opened at 4 o’clock in the morning to worship Goddess. The statue of Goddess is beautifully decorated with golden crown. It is also decorated with expensive jewelry and rosary. There is an aarti after worship. There is also an offering of offerings and offerings to the deity in worship.
Story behind Karni Mata
The main Temple of Karni Mata in Deshnok, also known as “ the Temple of Rats”, is 30 km from Bikaner. Karni Mata was basically a Hindu sage who was born as the seventh daughter of Charan Rajput clan in 1387 AD in Suwap village of Jodhpur district. She was believed to be the incarnation of Goddess Durga. Her original name was Ridhu Bai. She was married to Depoji Charan of Sathika village but after just two years of married life and despite the initial mockery from her husband, she married off her sister Gulab to her husband and left the village forever in order to fulfill her desire to leave all the worldly affairs and live life like a Nomad. After wandering for some time with her followers and herd, she reached Deshnok and finally settled here and also by then she became Karni Mata. The temple is famous for its enormous population of 25,000 rats which are religiously known as “Kabbas”. The story behind the rat population is that once the stepson of Karni Mata, Laxman, fell and died in the Kapil Sarovar in Kolayat Tehsil in attempt to drink water. After continuous pleading from Karni Mata, Yama, The God of Death, agreed to retrieve her son as a Rat and also permitted all her male children to be reincarnated as Rats. The Kabbas are known to be very holy and feeding them with sweets and eating the food nibbled by them is considered as “prestigious”. The temple in Udaipur too has a considerable number of white and black Kabbas. Karni Mata laid the cornerstone of two major Forts of Rajasthan that is Fort of Jodhpur and Fort of Bikaner. On March 21, 1538, while returning Deshnok, the Convoy halted in order to drink water near Kolayat Tehsil. When the followers got back to her she was nowhere to be found and after much search, she was never found hence she just disappeared then and there at the age of 151 years.
How it is celebrated?
The fair is organized twice a year during March–April and September–October. It’s organized with great love, discipline, and joy with the whole town taking part in it. The festival is dedicated to the mystical Karni Mata who was believed to have supernatural powers.
No shoes are allowed in the Karni Mata Temple, where the skittering claws of one of its numerous rats over bare toes is a blessing. The temple near Bikaner, India, is writhing with rats, with an estimated 20,000 rodents living within its marble-adorned walls.
Yet while the initial reaction may be repulsion, or some flashbacks to some of the creepier scenes of Willard, the temple is actually kept quite clean and all of the rats are believed to be humans in a state of reincarnation transition. The story has several versions, but basically Karni Mata asked the death-god Yama to reincarnate someone she cared about, sometimes said to be a stepson, sometimes the son of a family member, and was denied. So instead she dictated that her male descendants, or all male storytellers in another version, could be reincarnated as rats and then, once they live that animal life, reborn into her own family.
Visitors who want to see the rats at optimum mass are advised to arrive at sunrise or late at night, the latter being potentially more unsettling. The proximity of so many rats together has yet to lead to any reports of rat kings or diseases contractable by humans, so wander freely where the rats are fed on coconut shells, milk, and grains, the remains of which are all considered holy and the sharing of a piece of food snacked upon by a rat is said to bring good fortune. But for the greatest blessing of all, keep an eye out for one of the few albino rats, said to be manifestations of Karni Mata herself and her sons.
“Shri Mansapurna Karni Mata Temple” is a must visit as it does hold the powers to fulfill wishes and offers more than just peace and tranquility, it offers Udaipur at its best.
