Raksha Bandhan

rdf:langString Raksha Bandhan

rdf:langString Raksha Bandhan

rdf:langString Rakhi, Saluno, Silono, Rakri.

rdf:langString Raksha Bandhan

rdf:langString Hindus traditionally

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rdf:langString #D0F0F0

rdf:langString A rakhi being tied during Raksha Bandhan

rdf:langString Purnima of Shrawan

rdf:langString Religious, cultural

rdf:langString Rakhi, Saluno, Silono, Rakri.

rdf:langString Raksha Bandhan

rdf:langString Bound by a sacred gift, in happier hours,

rdf:langString Famine and death were sitting at the gate,

rdf:langString He came to the beleaguered walls too late,

rdf:langString He rushes on to danger or to death.

rdf:langString Now when the star of Kurnivati lowers,

rdf:langString The flower of Rajasthan had found a grave.

rdf:langString To prove a brother's undecaying faith;

rdf:langString Vain was the splendid sacrifice to save;

rdf:langString "Mayer's observation for central India would not be inaccurate for most communities in the subcontinent: A man's tie with his sister is accounted very close. The two have grown up together, at an age when there is no distinction made between the sexes. And later, when the sister marries, the brother is seen as her main protector, for when her father has died to whom else can she turn if there is trouble in her conjugal household. The parental home, and after the parents' death the brother's home, often offers the only possibility of temporary or longer-term support in case of divorce, desertion, and even widowhood, especially for a woman without adult sons. Her dependence on this support is directly related to economic and social vulnerability."

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rdf:langString — Govind Ballabh Pant, from Selected Works of Govind Ballabh Pant, Oxford University Press, 1998.

rdf:langString — Bina Agarwal in A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia , quoting Adrian C. Mayer, Caste and kinship in Central India

rdf:langString — From poem, "The Rakhi," in Oriental scenes, dramatic sketches, and tales , by Emma Roberts, p. 125

rdf:langString Hindu

rdf:langString Raksha Bandhan is a popular and traditionally Hindu annual rite or ceremony that is central to a festival of the same name celebrated in the Indian Subcontinent. It is also celebrated in other parts of the world significantly 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. They symbolically protect them, 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 Shraavana, which typically falls in August. The expression "Raksha Bandhan" (Sanskrit, literally "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. A ritual associated with Saluno included 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 or village exogamy. The 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 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 their 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 continues to be highly popular. The rituals associated with this festival have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration. Other factors that have played a role are: the movies, social interaction, and promotion by politicized Hinduism, as well as by the nation state. Among women and men who are not blood relatives, there is a transformed tradition of voluntary kin relations achieved through the tying of rakhi amulets. This has 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.