Okay I found a site, but it does not match completely with the Ripley’s story. The Ripleys story said that there have been no epidemics and no usual vermin/rodent diseases. Wheras this story talks about a epidemic that decreased the rat population in the mandir. Ripleys also claimed that there have been 4 white rats which are the emodiement of the 4 brothers who were caretakers of the mandir this story suggests 5.
anyways this site had some details, dunno how credible this site is though.
http://home.plex.nl/~omniron/wrindiatemple.html
In the small city of Deshnoke, located about 15 miles (30 kilometers) south of Bikaner in the northwestern province of Rajasthan, the people believe that the rats who live in a certain temple are holy and will be reincarnated into mystics and sadhus (holy men) in their next lives. Devotees travel for many miles through the Great Indian Desert to pay tribute to these little creatures living in the Karni Mata temple (or Shri Karni Mata; Karni Mata is a Hindu goddess who is often depicted carrying a severed head).
After passing through the great silver doors embossed with the images of rats, one crosses the main courtyard and enters the inner temple complex. It is not the lovely, carved-marble facades that first catch one’s eye, but rather all the small brown rats… everywhere… bounding across the ground, feasting from large dishes of grain or milk, scurrying up the pillars and scrambling in the bird nets overhead. We, as tourists, were not allowed to actually enter the inner shrine but were allowed to watch the locals as they gingerly fed the rats and carefully touched the floor where the rats had walked. Fortunately, the whole complex was relatively clean, which may not seem
important until one considers that this is a holy place and shoes may not be worn inside.
The rats themselves are classified as “black rats” (Rattus rattus) and are not the standard pet “brown rats” (Rattus norvegicus), although these rats were probably more tame than many household pet rats. They did not dart away when someone approached because they knew the person would always stop and give them the right of way. Some of the larger rats did look rather ‘weathered’ with tufts of fur missing or a broken tail, but all in all, they appeared to be quite well-fed and active.
One of the local temple caretakers explained that there had been a recent epidemic in which a large portion of the rat population had died; apparently there had been many many more rats only two years ago. Among the remaining rats were still four or five special white rats. Supposedly to view one of these creatures brings very good luck… and the Vermin Brewing Team was lucky that day. A small beggar girl spotted one white rat amongst some rocks, and surprisingly it wasn’t the tourists but rather the locals who led the large group of people who raced over to catch a glimpse of it. Just in case one’s luck wasn’t so good, however, there were plenty of
souvenirs available with the white rat as the star.
Rats could be seen all over the country in forms other than the flesh as well. Rats are the honored animal accompaniment of Ganesh, the Hindu god of wisdom depicted with an elephant head