Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan
	A rakhi being tied during Raksha Bandhan
Official name	Raksha Bandhan.
Also called	Rakhi, Saluno, Silono, Rakri
Observed by	Hindus
Type	Religious, cultural, secular
Date	Purnima (full moon) of Shrawan
2017 date	Monday, 7 August (Friday, 28 July in Nepal)
2018 date	Sunday, 26 August
Related to	Bhai Duj, Bhai Tika, Sama Chakeva

A sister facing her brother, and holding a tray with rakhis.

Raksha Bandhan, also Rakshabandhan, or simply Rakhi, is an annual rite performed in the Indian 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, western India, Nepal, 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, Silono, and Rakri. The rituals associated with these rites, however, have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration, the movies, social interaction, and promotion by politicized Hinduism, as well as by the nation state.

Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August. 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. 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. A ritual associated with Saluno includes the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers.

Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial exogamy, in which a bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents, by custom, do not visit her in her married home. In rural north India, where territorial 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, and marriages not always traditional, the festival has become more symbolic, but continues to be highly popular.

Among women and men who are not blood relatives, there is also a transformed tradition of voluntary kin relations, achieved through the tying of rakhi amulets, which have 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. Raksha Bandhan is also celebrated by Hindu communities in other parts of the world. Although rooted in Hindu culture, the festival has no traditional prayers unambiguously associated with it. The religious myths claimed for it are disputed, and the historical stories associated with it considered apocryphal by some historians. More recently, after enactment of more gender-neutral inheritance laws in India, it has been suggested that in some communities the festival has seen a resurgence of celebration, which is serving to indirectly pressure women to abstain from fully claiming their inheritance.

Etymology

Rajendra Prasad, the first president of the Republic of India celebrating Raksha Bandhan at the presidential palace, Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, 24 August 1953

According to R. S. McGregor's Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, 1993, the name of the festival, the masculine Hindi noun rak??bandhan is composed of the Sanskrit loanword rak??, a feminine noun, which means, "protection," "preservation," or "care." and a second Sanskrit loanword bandhan, a masculine noun, which means "fastening," or "tying together." According to V. S. Apte's Revised Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 1957–1959, ????? pronounced rak?? means, "protection," "preservation," or "guarding;" ????? pronounced, "bandhana," means "The act of binding, fastening, tying."

According to McGregor, the Hindi feminine noun, r?kh?, (which is compared etymologically to rak?? 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 Sr?van: especially by a sister round a brother's wrist, when the brother gives a small gift of money." In contrast, Apte defines one of the secondary meaning of ????? (rak??) to be: "A piece of silk or thread fastened round the wrist on particular occasions, especially on the full-moon day of ?r?va?a, as an amulet or preservative; (????? (rak??) also in this sense).

According to Jack Goody, rak??bandhan is "cognate with the Sanskrit name for marriage, sa?bandhan, where the common element bandhan (Sanskrit: bandhá) refers to the act of tying. The ceremonies are complementary. Marriage (sam, reciprocally) ties spouses; rak??bandhan ties brother and sister."

Regions

A girl is tying a rakhi (a Rakshasutra) around her mother's wrist as part of the celebration Rakshbandhan in a village Lahree, Jabalpur district, Madhya Pradesh, India.

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 other regions of India, and overseas Hindu communities such as in Fiji. 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 is has claimed in North India."^[46]).

Traditions

Women shopping for rakhi

Tying the rakhi on the wrist

Anthropologist McKim Marriott in his "Little Communities in an Indigenous Civilization," (1955) describes an "Indian-wide" tradition of Rakhi-bandhan, or Raksha-bandhan, in which a priest ties charms around their patrons' wrists and receives gifts of money, and a local tradition of Saluno in Aligarh district of North India in which sisters place ears of sacred grains on the heads and behind the ears of their brother in affirmation of the brother's role as their real or potential protector.^[7]^[47] Marriott's work also describes the field study of anthropologist Alan R. Beals in Namhalli, a village near Bangalore, who notes changes in the rakhi tradition brought on by modern technology.^[47]

While Raksha Bandhan is celebrated in various parts of the Indian subcontinent, different regions mark the day in different ways.

In the state of West Bengal and Odisha, this day is also called Jhulan Purnima. Prayers and puja of Lord Krishna and Radha are performed there. Sisters tie rakhi to brothers and wish immortality. Political parties, offices, friends, schools to colleges, street to palace celebrate this day with a new hope for a good relationship.^{[citation needed]}

In Maharashtra, the festival of Raksha Bandhan is celebrated along with Narali Poornima (coconut day festival). Kolis are the fishermen community of the coastal state. The fishermen offer prayers to Lord Varuna, the Hindu god of Sea, to invoke his blessings. As part of the rituals, coconuts were thrown into the sea as offerings to Lord Varuna. The girls and women tie rakhi on their brother's wrist, as elsewhere.^[48]^[49]

In the regions of North India, mostly Jammu, it is a common practice to fly kites on the nearby occasions of Janamashtami and Raksha Bandhan. It's not unusual to see the sky filled with kites of all shapes and sizes, on and around these two dates. The locals buy kilometres of strong kite string, commonly called as "gattu door" in the local language, along with a multitude of kites.^{[citation needed]}

In Haryana, in addition to celebrating Raksha Bandhan, people observe the festival of Salono.^[50] Salono is celebrated by priests solemnly tying amulets against evil on people's wrists.^[

Release Date :

12:00am on Thursday 1st January 1976