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Foreward:
Hope you enjoyed the first part of my blog on Bikaner posted last Saturday. This is the second and the concluding part. Bikaner is a laid back and slow-paced town whose charm grows over you slowly but surely – you gradually get enchanted by it as you savour it’s rich history, heritage, culture & food !! No visit to Bikaner is complete without a heritage walk in the alleys of the old walled city of Bikaner where the Havelis ( mansions of the merchants) charm you with their sheer magnificence and an interesting visit to the historic Karni Mata temple some 30 kms from Bikaner where rats rule the roost !! A stay at one of the luxury palace heritage hotels or Haveli Bouquet hotel adds the royal touch to the visit.
Historical background of the Havelis:
Maharajas of Bikaner were visionary and they knew that for the city to become prosperous it has to develop as a rich trading & commercial centre. They patronized the merchants and encouraged them from other parts of Rajasthan to settle down in Bikaner by providing them many facilities to build their mansions. Due to its strategic location on the trade route and also since it was like an oasis in the arid, harsh desert it soon developed into a prosperous city and as the merchants known as Seths in Rajasthan amassed wealth they built huge palatial havelis for their large joint families. The first havelis appeared more than 400 years ago. Soon they became status symbols and the size and the grandeur of the havelis became a benchmark to judge the wealth of the Seths. After the emergence of British power in India a majority of the kingdoms accepted their supremacy. As the importance & wealth of the dynasties declined the trading opportunities also started shrinking. As the families kept on growing, the newer generation started going out to far off places like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Assam, Nagpur etc. to find new business opportunities. Only the men folk would go and the women & children stayed back. Since it was a shrewd and enterprising community, they soon made a lot of money in these cities through their acumen. Their was lot of cooperation & bonhomie among the members of the community. They would stay for 9 months in the city of their business but come back to Rajasthan for two to three months during the cooler months to be with their families. With the wealth generated they built mini palaces like havelis. While the earlier batch of havelis exhibited more of Rajputana or a mix of Rajputana & Mughal Architecture, the later havelis were also influenced by a bit of Victorian architecture in their interiors and the designs of the doors & windows.
Face to face with the havelis:
The majestic, imposing havelis of Bikaner make you go WOW !! They bowl you over and you are overwhelmed with the feeling of awe and delight as you stand admiring their craftsmanship & architecture. As you see one Haveli after another, you are suddenly engulfed by the feeling of eerie silence as these overbearing tall, deserted buildings with closed windows & doors take you decades or perhaps hundreds of years back in time when they & the streets below would have been bustling with activities. The Havelis look so inviting as they want someone to step in and listen to their interesting stories of yore !! Once upon a time they would have been teeming with a steady stream of people in their colourful attire. The men folk in their dhoti kurta and colourful pagdis or safas or the simple topis and the women in their colourful sarees or ghagra choli with odhnis of myriad colours, pulled over their head as a veil. Till few decades back people in other states felt that women in Rajasthan were backwards as they put ghunghat or a veil over the face. But the fact is that this practice developed over the centuries as Rajasthan was subjected to regular attacks from the invaders and dacoits and the women had to use this ploy to hide their beautiful faces from their evil eyes !! These havelis used to have two entrances – the front one opening on to the street was used by the men folk and visitors, some of whom were allowed only till the baithak or divankhana (drawing room). There used to be a side entrance used by the women, children & retinue of servants and others like Maharaj (cook), Nai & Nain (hair cutter & masseuse for women) sunar (jeweller), rangrez (dyer), pujari (priest), water carrier, carpenter, weaver, potter and many others. Majority of them were dependent on the Haveli residents for their livelihood. Two gun bearing security personnel used to stand guard at the entrance. The baithak used to be the show piece of the havelis as it was open to the visitors. It had wall to wall paintings & murals depicting mythological scenes, gods & goddesses and occasionally the paintings of the ancestors. There was use of coloured glass, designer Italian tiles for the flooring and exquisite jharokas were carved out in wood. There used to be a separate Puja room and all the havelis invariably had a central courtyard open to the sky which was used for socializing by the ladies of the family and for family functions. Festivals like Diwali & Holi were celebrated with lot of gaiety and women folk celebrated their festivals like Gangaur & Teej with lot of enthusiasm. Mehendi as an art was very popular in Rajasthan and the ladies in the havelis never missed an opportunity to apply them on their hands & feet. The children enjoyed the joint family culture of the Haveli and till they grew up to the age of 6 or 7 didn’t even know who their real parents were !! Bikaneri dialect of Rajasthani was slightly different from the dialects spoken in the other regions.
As the joint families gave way to nuclear families, they migrated to different cities but continued maintaining the havelis and visiting it annually for family marriages or religious functions or family get togethers. But the subsequent generations lost interest in that also and the havelis remained deserted and desolate, either locked or under a care taker. It is said that once upon a time there were more than 400 havelis in Bikaner but today not more than 100 survive and only few still have permanent occupants. Others have been sold off – some have been razed to build new structures, some have crumbled down due to ravages of time & no maintenance. A handful of them are still well maintained by the owners and some have been converted into heritage boutique hotels very popular with foreign tourists.
Rampuria group of Havelis
I read on the internet that Aldous Huxley the famous English writer & philosopher had visited India and surprisingly found the Tajmahal as an awfully bad structure (his wife mentions this in her diary) but found the Rampuria Haveli at Bikaner as the ‘Pride of Bikaner’ (though I couldn’t find any citation about this !)
Whether Huxley said this or not but the group of 7 Rampuria havelis are definitely the most attractive havelis of Bikaner standing tall for more than 400 years and leave the visitor enthralled with their edifice- the artistic doors, jharokas, chajjas & intricate jaalis. They were designed and conceptualized by a local Architect Balujee Chalva. These striking havelis were built in Dulmera red sandstone.
The current generation of Rampuria families are mostly based in Kolkata. A visitor can see one of their havelis from inside by taking prior permission from them. They give a glimpse of the rich life style of the Seths. The street is lined up with these havelis on both sides and standing on the street you get many photographic opportunities capturing their facade from different angles. I along with my wife paid a visit on the first afternoon and roamed around for sometime. I returned again the next morning at the golden hour when the street was deserted except for a small group of young foreigners giggling & chatting and posing for photoshoots !!! One of the Rampuria havelis has been converted into a hotel known as ‘Bhawar Niwas’ and it is a very popular stay option with foreigners.
Daga Havelis
My next visit was to Daga Chowk which has 5 havelis belonging to different members of the Daga clan built more than 200 years ago. They impress the visitor with their ornamental jharokas and floral exteriors. Daga family was the banker & financier to the Maharajas of Bikaner and successfully ran the Hundi (banking) business for six generations in Bikaner. In 1840 they divided and moved to Nagpur, Mumbai & Hyderabad. Raibahadur Abirchand Bansilal Daga inherited the hundi business and moved to Nagpur and set up a successful business empire there that included Banking, Collieries & Cotton Mills. His son Sir Kasturchand Daga was a visionary entrepreneur and he grew the business manifold. The Banking (hundi) business was operating from Lahore to Burma in the East and till Madras in the South. He was conferred the titles of Rai Bahadur, Dewan Bahadur and later knighted by the King of England. All the family members maintained their connection with Bikaner. Since one of the Daga family members is member of my family too, I got an opportunity to see the beautiful impressive haveli from inside. It is a three storey structure with baithak, courtyard & kitchen/dining space on the ground floor and the bedrooms on the first & second floors. The wall to wall paintings in the baithak or divankhana though a bit faded at some places still retain much of its lustre & original charm.
The other important families whose havelis are worth seeing are those of Kotharis, Bagrees, Mohtas & Daddas.
These havelis are part of India’s rich heritage and steps should be taken to preserve them.
The legend of Karni Mata:
India is a land of many interesting legends- different regions have their own gods & goddesses whose fame over the years have acquired a cult like following. Whether you believe in the interesting stories associated with them is a matter of personal choice but we have no right to denounce or question the unflinching faith of the followers !!
One such strange temple and goddess can be found near Bikaner. Deshnoke is a small town, 30 kms from Bikaner with a population of about 20,000. It is famous for its 600-year-old Karni Mata Temple also now known nationally & internationally as temple of rats. The temple which we see now is an expanded renovated one.
During the 14th century, Karni Mata, who belonged to Charan clan, lived and performed many miracles during her lifetime. It is believed that she was married but she expressed a desire to her husband to remain celibate. She got her sister Gulab married to her husband so that he could lead a normal married life. She left her husband and in-laws’ house and became ascetic and roamed from place to place with some followers and cattle herd camping at sunset. It is believed that she performed many miracles including bringing young boys back to life who had died due to snake bite or drowning. Her popularity grew and so did the number of followers. She started being revered even in her life time. The Maharaja of Jodhpur was her follower and he invited her to lay the foundation stone of Mehrangarh fort. She was very fond of Rao Bikaji and blessed him when he sought her blessings before setting up his kingdom at Bikaner. At his request she also laid the foundation stone of Bikaner fort. She also arranged for marriage of Rao Bikaji with the princess of Poogal and ended the feud between the two warring kings.
The locals believe that once she fought with Yamraj to bring a young boy from her own family back to life and Yamraj had to give in to her request and gave him a second life but as a rat ! He blessed her with the boon that after death her descendants will become rats and rats will again become humans after death. It is believed that she lived till the ripe age of 151 and locals believe that she suddenly disappeared and metamorphosed into a white rat. Locals believe that when a person in Charan community dies, he or she is reborn as a rat in the temple and vice-versa. Rats are called ‘Kabas’ here. No one could tell me the story behind that name for the rats.
Even during her lifetime a temple was built in her ancestral village that does not contain an image or idol of her, but rather a footprint to symbolize her visit to that place.
About the temple: After her death with the blessings of Maharaja a temple dedicated to her was built at Deshnoke close to her village some 30 kms from Bikaner. This temple is known as Karni Mata temple. During both the Navratris, thousands of devotees throng the temple not only from different parts of Rajasthan but also from Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Her followers believe that she was a saint warrior and worship her as reincarnation of Warrior Goddess Hinglaj. She is the official deity of the rulers of Jodhpur & Bikaner. She is depicted as holding a trident and riding a lion, flanked by an eagle.
This temple has also become famous for kabas (rats) who are believed to be her descendants and are treated as sacred and given protection in the temple. People in that area also believe that Karni Mata also protects the cows and Krishna Saara Mriga (blackbuck). Hundreds of rats can be seen roaming around the temple premises, they jump around the idol of Karni Mata in the sanctum oblivious to the humans around them. You can see them drinking milk or nibbling at the ladoos or other sweets offered to the goddess. There are designated places where devotees can offer milk to them. There are few white rats also. A sighting of the white rat is rare and those who sight them are believed to be lucky and good fortune would befall them. It is believed that the white rats are members of Karni Mata’s family while the black rats are the members of her community. As they are known as Kabas, the priests don’t like them being called as rats!!
Many visitors start jumping in scare as the rats scamper from here to there some time over their naked feet !! It is said that if any visitor accidentally kills a black rat by stepping on it, he or she has to replace it with a silver rat and if a white rat is killed it has to be replaced with a rat made of gold in equivalent weight !! What is surprising is that the rats don’t leave the temple premises nor have they ever bitten a visitor or have caused the spread of any disease!!!
Karni Mata is also known as “dadhi wali dokri” or Dadhali (“beard bearing old lady”) as it said that after she reached the age of 125 she started sprouting a beard. A photo/ paintings museum near the temple has a painting depicting her with a beard and other paintings depict scenes of her performing miracles. One can complete going around the museum in 5 to 7 mins.
The temple is designed as a fort. There are 4 bastions on each corner of the temple wall. The front gate is made of profusely carved white marble with floral designs. When we had visited in November 2017, the work was in progress for building a new bigger temple behind the existing one.
Outside the premises, there are some stalls selling eatables and some shops selling artifacts. I had refreshing sugarcane juice taken out freshly before me in a clean vessel.
If you found my travelogue interesting then please leave your comment in the comments section below and share the link with your friends. This would help us to make more people aware of the rich heritage of India.
I am a Life Member of INTACH, Nasik Chapter.
In case of any queries or feedback you can reach me at rameshkabra1956@gmail.com
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