Bikaner in the context of Bikaner District

Karni Mata Temple of Deshnoke (Hindi: करणी माता मंदिर), also known as Madh Deshnoke, is a prominent Hindu temple dedicated to Karni Mata at the town of Deshnoke, located 30 km south of Bikaner, in Rajasthan. It has become the most important pilgrimage site for devotees of Charani sagatis after access to Hinglaj was restricted following the partition of India. The temple is also a popular destination for tourists and pilgrims and is renowned, both in India and internationally, as the "Temple of Rats" due to the numerous rodents known as kābā which are considered holy and treated with utmost care by devotees. This is sometimes upheld as exemplary of an "environmentally conscious Hindu ethos". The temple draws visitors from across the country for blessings, as well as curious tourists from around the world.

The temple was originally constituted around 1530, after the mahaprayan of Karni Mata. It initially began with the inner sanctum covered by the dome and grew in size with constructions being added by the devotees through the following centuries.

Bikaner State was the Princely State in the north-western most part of the Rajputana province of imperial British India from 1818 to 1947. The founder of the state Rao Bika was a younger son of Rao Jodha ruler of and founder of the city of Jodhpur in Marwar. Rao Bika chose to establish his own kingdom instead of inheriting his father's. Bika defeated the Jat clans of Jangladesh which today refers to the north and north-western Rajasthan along with his uncle Rao Kandhal and his adviser Vikramji Rajpurohit and founded his own kingdom. Its capital was the city of Bikaner.

The state was noted for the Bikaner style of Miniature Painting.

Kalibangān is a town located at 29°28′N 74°08′E / 29.47°N 74.13°E / 29.47; 74.13 on the left or southern banks of the Ghaggar (Ghaggar-Hakra River) in Tehsil Pilibangān, between Suratgarh and Hanumangarh in Hanumangarh District, Rajasthan, India 205 km from Bikaner. It is also identified as being established in the triangle of land at the confluence of Drishadvati and Sarasvati Rivers. The prehistoric and pre-Mauryan character of the Indus Valley Civilization was first identified at this site by Luigi Tessitori. Kalibangan's excavation report was published in its entirety in 2003 by the Archaeological Survey of India, 34 years after the completion of excavations. The report concluded that Kalibangan was a major provincial capital of the Indus Valley Civilization. Kalibangan is distinguished by its unique fire altars and "world's earliest attested ploughed field". It is around 2900 BC that the region of Kalibangan developed into what can be considered a planned city.

Kalibangan was first excavated under the Directorship of B. B. Lal (ASI) between 1960-61 to 1969-70.Other excavation team members were B.K. Thapar, M.D. Khare, K.M. Shrivastava,J.P.Joshi

Karni Mata (Hindi: करणी माता, or Bhagwati Karniji Maharaj), known by various names such as Bhagwati, Mehaai, Jagdamba, and Kiniyani is a Hindu Goddess of power and victory described as a warrior sage, who lived between 14th and 16th centuries in Western Rajasthan. Karni Mata is the tutelary deity of the Rajputs and Charans of northwestern India. As a Sagati, she is also worshipped as an incarnation of Hinglaj or Durga. She is the official deity of the royal families of Bikaner and Jodhpur. Karniji played an important role in shaping the history of the region. She is intimately associated with the establishment of the Rajput hegemony in the region. With her blessings, Rao Jodha and Rao Bika founded the kingdoms of Jodhpur and Bikaner. At the request of the Maharajas of Bikaner and Jodhpur, she laid the foundations of Bikaner Fort and Mehrangarh Fort, the two most important forts in the region. She lived an ascetic life and was widely revered during her lifetime. Indian Army troops from the Marwar region also regard Karni Mata as their patron deity.

The most famous of the Karni Mata temples is the Karni Mata Temple of Deshnoke where the temple and surrounding Oran land are a sacred sanctuary for all the living beings and no one is to be harmed. In Rajasthan, Blackbucks are considered sacred as Karni Mata is supposed to protect them.

Bikaner district is a district of the state of Rajasthan in western India. The historic city of Bikaner is the district headquarters. The district is located in Bikaner Division along with the three other districts of Churu, Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh.

Rajasthan is the largest state in terms of area and the seventh most populous state in India through having a low population density. Jaipur is the largest and most populated metropolitan area in Rajasthan. Jodhpur, Kota and Bikaner being in order. Bhiwadi, Alwar and Udaipur are the cities with the most growth in recent years in both terms of population and area. The population projections are calculated using geometric increase, excluding Bhiwadi. By 2031, the state may have five cities with populations above one million, three cities over two million and one with over five million people. Bharatpur is considered as the eastern gateway of Rajasthan.

The region of Bikaner, stretching across north-western state of Rajasthan in India, was earlier known as Jangladesh. It included the present-day districts of Bikaner, Churu, Ganganagar, and Hanumangarh.It is bounded on the south by Marwar and Jaisalmer regions, on the east by Ajmer-Merwara region.

Bikaner state was a princely state that was founded in the 16th century as Mughal Jagirdar in this region under Mughal empire. After becoming a British protectorate in 1818, it persisted until shortly after India's Independence in 1947.

Rao Bika (5 August 1438 – 17 June 1504), was a scion of the Rathore clan of Rajputs and the founder of the city of Bikaner and Bikaner State in present-day state of Rajasthan in India. He was the fifth son of Rao Jodha, founder of the city of Jodhpur. During his reign he controlled an area of 40,000 square miles, which included 3,000 villages. He is the ancestor of the Bika Rathore Clan within the Rathore Dynasty and the founder of Bikawat Rathore House and the Royal House of Bikaner.

The Bikaner style of painting is a Rajasthani style of Indian painting developed in the city of Bikaner, capital of Bikaner State. It is one of the many schools of Rajput painting that developed in the late 17th century with the help of artists from the imperial Mughal workshops, who dispersed after these were run down in the reign of Aurangzeb, who ceased to patronize Mughal painting. The subjects are most either court portraits, or illustrations to Hindu texts. The Bikaner style is more closely related to the Mughal one than many other Rajput styles, also with some elements of Deccan style.

During the reign of Raja Karan Singh (r. 1632–69) there were close connections with the court of the emperor Shah Jahan, while the imperial workshops were still flourishing, and some Mughal-style subject matter began to appear late in this reign. Karan Singh's youngest son, Anup Singh (later raja, 1674–98), was a general commanding Mughal forces, especially in the Deccan, where he was based in Hyderabad for some time. This very likely accounts for the Deccan influences apparent in later paintings. His best artist, Ruknuddin (Rukn/h ud din Firuz), travelled with him, and many other Bikaner painters were relatives of his; other artists emigrated from the Deccan to Bikaner.