#RakshaBandhan is an intensely popular Hindu festival celebrated on the full moon day in the month of Shravan in India and across the globe.
The expression “Raksha Bandhan,” Sanskrit, literally, “the bond of protection, obligation, or care,” is now principally applied to this ritual. On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman, or amulet, called the Rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers, parabolically protecting them, receiving a gift in return.
The Spiritual and Historical Significance of Rakhi
Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August. Until the mid-20th century, the expression was more generally applied to a similar ritual, also held on the same day, with precedence in ancient Hindu texts, in which a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred thread, and receives gifts of money; in some places, this is still the case.
The origin of Rakhi celebrations is stemmed from Hindu mythology with no confirmed date and time available about the history of the Rakhi festival. It started as the tradition’ of tying the thread to the husband, it has evolved to have the sisters tying the thread to their brother.
The legend goes that in the Vedic period, on a ‘Shravan Poornima’ day (Full Moon Day of the Hindu month of Shravan), the deities and demons were fighting a battle against each other. Sadly, the demons were getting the better end of the battle compared to the deities. The king of the deities, Lord Indra, was extremely apprehensive about the result of the battle. His wife Indrani (also known as Shashikala) could not see him worried and prayed to the Almighty to help her husband. As Indrani was a godly lady, she prepared a talisman with her religious power and tied it around Indra’s right wrist.
Indrani believed that her talisman will safeguard Indra from the attack of demons. Eventually, she proved right, as that day, the deities won the battle and Lord Indra escaped unhurt. Since the talisman had the power to shield the person who wore it, it came to be known as ‘Raksha Sutra’ and the ceremony of tying it was called ‘Raksha Bandhan’. Since this particular act of tying the talisman took place on ‘Shravan Poornima’ day, it has become a tradition to celebrate ‘Raksha Bandhan’ on the ‘Shravan Poornima’ day every year. With time, the festival came to comprise of the brother-sister duo, rather than a husband-wife.
It is said that “In Savan, greenness abounds as the newly planted crops take root in the wet soil. It is a month of joy and gaiety, with swings hanging from tall trees. Girls and women swing high into the sky, singing their joy. The gaiety is all the more marked because women, especially the young ones, are expected to return to their natal homes for an annual visit during Savan.”
History records that when King Alexander of Greece invaded India in 326 B.C., his wife tied a Rakhi to King Porus and in return, Porus promised to protect her and her husband. We also have various examples of tying knots or threads, especially in the history of Rajputana. The most famous of them is the story of the Queen Karnavati of Chittor, who sent a Rakhi to the Mughal emperor Humayun, to save her kingdom from the invasion of Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. That particular day of Purnima was celebrated as Raksha Bandhan first in Marwar and then, all over Rajasthan. Finally, it came to be widely celebrated all over India.
The Hindu Customs
The sister-brother festival, with origins in folk culture, had names which varied with location, with some rendered as Saluno, Silono, and Rakhi. A ritual linked with Saluno had the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers.
For married women, Raksha Bandhan is embedded in the practice of territorial or village exogamy, in which a bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents, by tradition, do not visit her in her married home. In rural north India, where village exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents’ homes every year for the ceremony.
Their brothers, who typically live with the parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters’ married home to escort them back. Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. The brothers serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters’ married and parental homes, as well as potential stewards of their security.
In urban India, where families are increasingly nuclear, the festival has become more symbolic but persists to be highly favoured. The rituals associated with this festival have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration, movies, and social interaction, publicized by politicized Hinduism, as well as by the nation-state. Among women and men who are not blood relatives, there is also an altered tradition of voluntary kin relations, achieved through the tying of rakhi amulets, which have marvellously cut across caste and class lines, and Hindu and Muslim divisions. In some communities or contexts, other figures, such as a matriarch, or a person in authority, can be included in the ceremony in ritual acknowledgement of their benefaction.
Scholars who have written about the ritual, have usually described the traditional region of its observance as north India; however, also included are: central India, western India and Nepal, as well as other regions of India, and overseas Hindu communities such as in Fiji. It is essentially a Hindu festival; however, in addition to India and Nepal, Pakistan and Mauritius are two other countries where Hindus celebrate this occasion.
On Saluno day, many husbands arrive at their wives’ villages, ready to carry them off again to their villages of marriage. But, before going off with their husbands, the wives, as well as their unmarried village sisters, express their concern for and devotion to their brothers by placing young shoots of barley, the locally sacred grain, on the heads and ears of their brothers and brothers reciprocate with small coins.
On the same day, along with the ceremonies of Saluno, and according to the literary precedent of the Bhavisyottara Purana, … the ceremonies of Charm Tying (Rakhi Bandhan or Raksha Bandhan) are also held. The Brahman domestic priests of Kishan Garhi go to each patron and tie upon his wrist a charm in the form of a polychrome thread, bearing tassel “plums.” Each priest utters a vernacular blessing and is rewarded by his patron with cash, These ceremonies compliment each other and the festival has evolved to transformational change.