रक्षाबन्धन

The tradition & historical record

Raksha Bandhan is a popular and traditionally Hindu annual rite or ceremony that is central to a festival of the same name celebrated in South Asia, and among people around the world influenced by Hindu culture. On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman or amulet, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers. The sisters symbolically protect the brothers, receive a gift in return, and traditionally invest the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care. Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shravana, which typically falls in August. The expression "Raksha Bandhan" (literally, Sanskrit for "the bond of protection, obligation, or care") is now principally applied to this ritual. Until the mid-20th century, the expression was more commonly applied to a similar ritual, held on the same day, with precedence in ancient Hindu texts. In that ritual, a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred thread, and receives gifts of money. This is still the case in some places. By contrast, the sister-brother festival, with origins in folk culture, had names which varied with location. Some were rendered as saluno, silono, and rakri. ¹

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, 2008, the Hindi word, rākhī derives from the Sanskrit rakṣikā, a join: rakṣā protection, amulet ( < rakṣ- to protect + -ikā, diminutive suffix.) ¹

1829 The first attested use in the English language dates to 1829, in James Tod's, Ann. & Antiq. Rajasthan I. p. 312, "The festival of the bracelet (Rakhi) is in Spring... The Rajpoot dame bestows with the Rakhi the title of adopted brother; and while its acceptance secures to her all the protection of a 'cavaliere servente', scandal itself never suggests any other tie to his devotion." 1857, Forbes: Dictionary of Hindustani and English Saluno: the full moon in Sawan at which time the ornament called rakhi is tied around the wrist. 1884, Platts: Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English راکهي राखी rākhī (p. 582) H راکهي राखी rākhī [S. रक्षिका], s.f. A piece of thread or silk bound round the wrist on the festival of Salūno or the full moon of Sāvan, either as an amulet and preservative against misfortune, or as a symbol of mutual dependence, or as a mark of respect; the festival on which such a thread is tied—rākhī-bandhan, s.f. The festival called rākhī. 1899 Monier-Williams: A Sanskrit–English dictionary Rakshā: "a sort of bracelet or amulet, any mysterious token used as a charm,... a piece of thread or silk bound round the wrist on partic occasions (esp. on the full moon of Śrāvaņa, either as an amulet and preservative against misfortune, or as a symbol of mutual dependence, or as a mark of respect". 1990, Jack Goody: "The ceremony itself involves the visit of women to their brothers... ¹

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 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. Anthropologist Jack Goody, whose field study was conducted in Nandol, in Gujarat, describes Rakshabandhan as an "annual ceremony... of northern and western India". Anthropologist Michael Jackson writes, "While traditional North Indian families do not have a Father's or Mother's Day, or even the equivalent of Valentine's Day, there is a Sister's Day, called Raksha Bandhan,..." Religious scholar J. Gordon Melton describes it as "primarily a North Indian festival". Leona M. Anderson and Pamela D. Young describe it as "one of the most popular festivals of North India". Anthropologist David G. Mandelbaum has described it as "an annual rite observed in northern and western India". Other descriptions of primary regions are of development economist Bina Agarwal ("In Northern India and Nepal this is ritualized in festivals such as raksha-bandhan."), scholar and activist Ruth Vanita ("a festival widely celebrated in north India."), anthropologist James D. Faubion ("In north India this brother-sister relationship is formalized in the ceremony of 'Rakshabandhan.'"), and social scientist Prem Chowdhry ("... in the noticeable revival of the Raksha Bandhan festival and the renewed sanctity it has claimed in North India".). ¹

Sociologist Yogendra Singh has noted the contribution of American anthropologist McKim Marriott to an understanding of the origins of the Raksha Bandhan festival. In rural society, according to Marriott, there is steady interplay between two cultural traditions, the elite or "great" tradition based in texts, such as the Vedas in Indian society, and the local or "little", based in folk art and literature. According to Singh, Marriott has shown that the Raksha Bandhan festival has its "origin in the 'little tradition'". Anthropologist Onkar Prasad has further suggested that Marriott was the first to consider the limitations within which each village tradition "operates to retain its essence". ¹

In his village study, Marriott described two concurrently observed traditions on the full moon day of Shravana: a "little tradition" festival called "Saluno", and a "great tradition" festival, Raksha Bandhan, but which Marriott calls, "Charm Tying": 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. (The 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. ¹

In chapter 137 of the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purana, the Hindu god Krishna describes to Yudhishthira the ritual of having a raksha (protection) tied to his right wrist by the royal priest (the rajapurohita) on the purnima (full moon day) of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shravana. In one passage, Krishna says, "Partha (applied to any of the three sons of Kunti (also, Pritha), here with a particular empasis on Yudhishthira): When the sky is covered with clouds, and the earth dark with new, tender, grass, in that very Shravana month's full moon day, at the time of sunrise, according to remembered convention, a Brahmin should take a bath with perfectly pure water. ¹

Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial or village exogamy—in which a bride marries out of her natal village or town, and… ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Raksha Bandhan”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Raksha Bandhan is annual ritual originating from the Indian Subcontinent, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²