Rubberi Devi, as the name suggests, is a goddess made up of Rubber. She is the most talked after goddess of Bihar. She exists everywhere, especially in the homes of poors, illiterates, and backwards. There are houses where you can find her photos in prayer rooms. But most of the time she exists sticking on to be the broken walls to protect them falling, thatched walls of mud houses to prevent cold airs coming in. While walking on the broken roads of Bihar, one can find her in abundance on electricity polls, she has enough resistance to cease further transmission of the electricity and she is successful too. Many people who are minorities, even if they don’t worship any God, they will pray her at least once in a 5 year.
My readers may ask me, why she was named as Rubberi Devi? It’s a small story,and I will share it with you. In short her father has special affection with milk. He once went to south India for pilgrimage after her pretty daughter was born. There he saw a new kind of tree. Sitting beneath the tree, just for quest, he pierced the bark of the tree and to his surprise; he found that a liquid like milk is flowing out from the wounded bark. After seeing this new thing in his life, his joys were out of limit and he thought he has discovered a tree of milk. He asked the local people about the tree’s name and knew that it was a rubber tree. He determined to name her newly born daughter Rubberi.
But different people tell different reasons too about her name. Rubberi Devi never had her own strength. For all the years on the throne, she always required some strength to sit there. The supporting strength is well built for her and still being maintained. She cares for every devotee of her. Her eyes gleam with joy, when she sees any laloo – pachhu coming to her as devotee. She keeps these devotees to entertain her other devotees when she meets them.
There is some thing more about her greatness. She never talks in any foreign language but does not care about using foreign words too. And to be certain, Rubberi Devi has a mouth of rubber too. What kind of spears will come out of the bow is difficult to predict.
She is faithful to her ‘small’ family. And there are some specialties in her personality that, you can’t tell that she can be a goddess. Neither she neither wears fancy jewellery nor is seen in makeup any where. She is fond of cooking and is the most preferred cook of the most important man of Bihar. The goddess of women empowerment is also the goddess of common woman of India for her faithfulness and partnership with her husband. Even if she is prayed all over Bihar, she finds herself weak in front of the living God, the Sun.
May be some effect of these goodness, now a day, the Biharis seem to make her the unchallenged goddess in the Bihar again. Rubberi Devi, showing a big laloopop in her left hand, is blessing all the Biharis to ‘survive’ and be happy. She is reappearing all over the Bihar towns again in posters. But how long the stickiness of Rubberi Devi will last, I wonder. Since last many years she is marvel of her elasticity. Why not till now any one is able to bend her down? The great Rubberi Devi of Bihar!
My other Posts in this series :
Bihar – the write thing! – (5) – Tea Production
Bihar – the write thing! – (4) – Common man and Media.
Bihar – the write thing! – (3) – Democracy
Bihar – the write thing! – (2) – Common Life
Bihar – the write thing! – (1) – Origin as a State