Writing About The Famous Rat Temple With My Rats Ziggy and Zoey
This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
Writing About The Famous Rat Temple With My Rats Ziggy and Zoey
Written by Paige Etheridge
I’ve posted quite a bit about writing books with my dog Athena, but not so much about writing with my rats Ziggy and Zoey. Ziggy and Zoey didn’t live long, as rat lives are short. Yet they were with me while I drafted up the main plot for “The Light of India”. They even inspired me to include the famous Karni Mata Temple, also known as the Rat Temple, in the book.
The Karni Mata Temple came to be around 1530. It’s located in the town of Deshnoke in India. The Temple still exists today with many rats, human caretakers, and visitors. The rats are treated with the utmost love and respect.They are given offerings of milk as well as other edibles considered sacred to the goddess Karni Mata. These rats are literally worshiped.
Here, rats get treatment well above what most rats experience worldwide. White rats are considered lucky if you see them in the temple. There are those who say these white rats are Karni Mata herself. It’s believed the rats and those caring for them at the temple reincarnate into each other. Those who work in the temple believe the rats are their family and ancestors and treat them as such.
Visitors to the temple interact with the rats in ways that are usually different than they would normally; with curiosity and interest rather than disgust and fear. If you want to learn more about the temple, there’s tons of videos and articles online about this interesting place that honors rats.
Including the temple happened to fit well into the plot of the book. There's a huge theme around Nur Jahan and tigers in real life as well as the book. In the book, the goddess ruling over the rat temple also rules over tigers (though through another name and form as Durga).
The idea from Nur’s Djinn (call him a “spirit guide” because explaining his full role would take too long here) is that it’s easier to negotiate with a rat than it is with a tiger, so it is better to negotiate with the goddess in Karni Mata form (rat goddess) rather than Durga form (tiger goddess).
Nur needs the negotiating advantage due to all the tigers who have died under her hand and under that of her family. She goes to the temple with an offering of roti (flat bread) and must treat the rats with the utmost respect in order to please Karni Mata for negotiations. I even included a lucky white rat later in the scene.
The inspiration from Ziggy and Zoey was one of those things that just ended up fitting in beautifully with the natural flow of the story about Nur. As I wrote the scene about the Rat Temple, Athena was at my back as usual. Ziggy and Zoey ran up to me to see what I was doing and zoomed away just as quickly.
They played peekaboo with me from under the keyboard of my laptop I wrote on and from the couch cushions I sat on. When they grew tired, Zoey sat on my lap with me the longest as I continued to write. At the end, Ziggy licked away my tears when I finished the book draft.
One of the first smells Ziggy and Zoey whiffed upon reaching their home was Saag Paneer, an Indian dish of cheese in creamed spinach. I didn’t know at the time that they would be with me only through writing one book, I was in denial at the time how short rat lives are, and that much of the plot would take place in India. Yet they provided me with inspiration when it mattered most. I believe love is the greatest inspiration of all to create our best work.
"The Light of India" is available here:
Amazon.com: Light of India eBook : Etheridge, Paige: Kindle Store
Share Today
