Asian Walkabout

The goddess Karni Mata has a keen eye for Bikaner. A Rajasthani incarnate of the fierce and beautiful Durga, Karni Mata most recently protected Bikaner from disaster in 2002, when 80 trucks in a military convoy caught fire, releasing 1,000 tons of ammunition into the surrounding city. Amazingly enough, only one person died in the fiery rain, leading locals to flock to Karni Mata’s temple in Deshnoke to give thanks for her protection.

There is one way to know that you’ve gotten Karni Mata’s highest blessings. Our camel guide Keysore has received them many times; so has Daisy, Camel Man Vijay Singh’s wife, at whose guesthouse we stayed. Karni Mata’s blessing, when it comes out, is easy to spot, because it’s the only white thing around, save for the occasional tourist. The rest of her 20,000 tribespeople—rats as well, but in the usual gray suit—scurry hungrily around her temple, piling themselves up to sleep, lapping up offerings of milk and egg yolks, and, if you’re lucky, crawling over your feet.

We visited the Karni Mata temple on the third day of our 4-day camel safari. It was just the two of us, three guides, three camels, and a camel cart piled up with supplies, food, and blankets. The tour so far had been a silent, plodding affair on bone-cracking saddles. A typical day went something like this: wake up under ten pounds of blankets. Freeze. Get served a breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs, tea and porridge. Mount camel, much to dismay of American backside, which is accustomed to office chairs. Pass through peaceful villages with handmade huts and cud-chewing livestock. Watch as children run behind camels screaming “Ta ta! Ta ta!” (Bye Bye!). Disappear into shallow dunefields and swaths of sand punctuated by thorny scrubs. Pass tender fields of peanuts, lentils, wheat, and mustard. Chill out on blanket as camel guides make rice and dahl for lunch. Repeat for dinner. Crawl into tent to avoid cold.

It was a pretty provincial affair, up until the rat temple. Dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” this large, ornate temple is a hub of blessings for believers. To them, the rats that scurry across the ground and pile up in corners aren’t rats at all, but kabas, Mataji’s reincarnated tribespeople. The kabas are purported to be clean, disease-free, and blessed. “They never leave the perimeters of the temple, nor do they reproduce,” says the website karnimata.com. People come to worship them and receive their goddess’s powerful blessings.

As someone new to this belief system, it’s harder to stomach. After about ten minutes amidst the kabas, you start to lift your feet an awful lot when you walk, thinking one’s on its way up your pants, or nervously batting your hands on your clothes to make sure they’re kaba-free.

The camel tour ended with a long, pelvis-rearranging trek back to a jeep, which in turn took us back to the guesthouse. Happy to be back indoors as this northern Indian cold snap continues. We’re heading to Ranthambore National Park next, continuing the animal theme, hoping to spot some wild tigers…

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