Raksha Bandhan, also Rakshabandhan,[1] or simply Rakhi, is an annual rite performed in theIndian subcontinent, or by people originating from the Indian subcontinent, and centred around the tying of a thread, talisman, or amulet on the wrist as a form of ritual protection. The protection is offered principally by sisters to brothers, but also by priests to patrons, and sometimes by individuals to real or potential benefactors. Differing versions of the rite have been traditionally performed by Hindus in northern India,[2][3][4] western India,[5] Nepal,[6]and former colonies of the British Empire to which Hindus had emigrated from India in the 19th-century, and have included, in addition, rites with names rendered as Saluno,[7][8]Silono,[9] and Rakri.[10] The rituals associated with these rites, however, have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration,[11] the movies,[12] social interaction,[13]and promotion by politicized Hinduism,[14][15] as well as by the nation state.[16]
Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August.[17][18] On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman, or amulet, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers, ritually protecting their brothers, receiving a gift from them in return, and traditionally investing the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care.[19] The expression "Raksha Bandhan," Sanskrit, literally, "the bond of protection, obligation, or care," is now principally applied to this ritual. It has also applied to a similar ritual in which a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons and receives gifts of money.[10][20] A ritual associated with Saluno includes the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers.[7]
According to McGregor, the Hindi feminine noun, rākhī, (which is compared etymologically torakśā described above) is a "protective talisman: a piece of thread etc., with a rosette, tied ceremoniously round a protector or patron's wrist on the full moon of the month Srāvan: especially by a sister round a brother's wrist, when the brother gives a small gift of money."[37]In contrast, Apte defines one of the secondary meaning of रक्षा (rakṣā) to be: "A piece of silk or thread fastened round the wrist on particular occasions, especially on the full-moon day of Śrāvaṇa, as an amulet or preservative; (रक्षी (rakṣī) also in this sense).[35]
The love in my body and heart
For the earth's shadow and light
Has stayed over years.
With its cares and its hope it has thrown
A language of its own
Into blue skies.
It lives in my joys and glooms
In the spring night's buds and blooms
Like a Rakhi-band
On the Future's hand.
