Bikaner Rat Temple

The Karni Mata Temple, also popularly known as the Nari Mata Temple, is a highly popular tourist spot amongst devotees that is dedicated to Karni Mata, who is believed to be an incarnation of Maa Durga. She is supposed to have laid the foundation stones of two of the most famous forts in Rajputana, and numerous temples dedicated to her can be found all across the country. What is unique about this temple, however, is not its architecture or location, rather the fact that 25,000 black rats live, and are worshipped, in the temple. In fact, the food that is eaten by them is considered to be holy and is later served as 'prasad'.
These holy rats are known as kabbas, and people from all over the world travel great distances to come and visit the temple to pay their respects to these rats. This is why the temple is also popularly called the 'Temple of Rats'. This Hindu temple is 600 years old and is located in a small town of Deshnok, which is 30 kilometres to the south of Bikaner, Rajasthan in India. Numerous tales and legends are associated with the temple and the rats that live here, but no one knows the exact history of this unique shrine.