The beauty of Indian culture with all its festivals, customs, rituals, traditions and deep philosophy is designed to nurture relationships.
The importance of relationship is amply demonstrated and stressed as foremost in its Indian scheme of living – be it the relationship of parent-child, teacher-student, husband-wife, brother-sister, humans-other beings, mankind-universe and even the primary relationship between man and God.
There is a festival, tradition, custom, ritual and social practice for each of these relationships. Also, there is a specific name for each relationship along with a role prescription. There is a different name for each relation in an Indian family. A ‘Kaka’ is different to a ‘Mama’ or ‘Masa’ and a ‘Jeth’ is different to a ‘Devar’ yet they are all ‘uncles’ to a child. Watch the teleserial ‘Yeh rishta kya kahelalata hai’ on Star Plus and you will know about the names of these different Indian relationships. The Indian literature and legends abound with examples of such relationships and role models.
The entire gamut of relationships is thus systematised in the Indian family system. Customs like Raksha Bandhan is just proof of that, where sisters tie the sacred R?khi thread on their brothers' right wrists and pray for their long life. ‘Raksha' means ‘protection’ and ‘bandhan' means ‘bond’ making this a unique festival in India which glorifies all relationships, especially that of a special brother-sister relationship.
On this day brothers and sisters reach out to show their love, affection, care, respect and togetherness to strengthen the emotional bonding of the family. This inimitable custom has become a festival emphasizing that everybody should live in harmonious coexistence with each other.
A Sanskrit subhashita (saying) highlights this harmonious relationship when it expands: “‘This person is my kin and that one is alien,’ such a thought occurs only to the narrow-minded people. To the broad-minded persons the whole world is a family.”
The bond of brother and sister is so ingrained in Indian culture that we don’t hesitate to call an unknown lady as ‘behenji’ or call a man ‘bhai saab’. Sometimes the suffix ‘bhai’ is part of the name for people from certain regions of India.
This custom is celebrated on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Shravan in India and this year it falls on 5th August. The Shravan month is a pious month and a full moon in this month is considered very holy. It is celebrated in different ways for different reasons in east, west, north and south of India.
In the west, this festival is known as Nariyal Purnima marking the beginning of the fishing season. In the south this festival is called Avani Avittam – an important day for the Brahmins where they change their holy thread (upavata) taking a vow to perform their duties with good conduct as prescribed in the Vedas.
In the north, it is called Kajri Purnima or Kajri Navami, when wheat or barley is sown and farmers pray to seek mother earth’s blessings for a good crop. In the east, the 'Rakhi Utsava' is continued till date by the students of the universal school Shanti Niketan School, as it was initiated by the great litterateur, creative genius and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. But mainly this festival is where siblings show their love and affection by tying a sacred thread of protection.
The tradition of thread (rakhi) tying still continues though it originates from legends that goes back to thousands of years. The Raksha Bandhan custom finds mention in the great epics and the Puranic literature. Historically the same customs were practiced as mentioned in the Bhavishya Purana; in the story of King Bali and Goddess Lakshmi and that of Yama and the Yamuna; in the Mahabharata epic where Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas tied rakhi to her grandson Abhimanyu and where Draupadi to Lord Krishna.
If a woman ties a Rakhi on the wrist of a man not related to her by blood, he is obliged to honour her as his sister. The strong belief in the Rakhi is reflected in the legend of Mewar. It is believed that the queen of Mewar, Maharani Karnavati, faced threat from Governor Bahadur Shah.
Unable to fight the army, she sent a Rakhi to the Mughal ruler, Humayun. The Muslim emperor who under normal circumstances would not have opted for the alliance, decided to protect her from the threat. Humayun reached Mewar at the time when the queen was preparing for self-immolation.
He chased Bahadur Shah and his men and restored the kingdom back to the queen of Mewar.This delicate and artistic thread of R?khi is thus considered stronger and symbolic of the indissoluble bond of love and trust between a brother and sister. Relationships are an important part of life that needs to be treasured.
Our relationships with others are like bridges and we can’t afford to burn those bridges. This bond (bandhan) of protection (Raksha) is only to reinforce this bridge from time to time. We ‘protect’ a thing only if we ‘value’ it. As the famous quote by Anthony J. D'Angelo goes: “The most important things in life aren't things”, relationships are certainly the treasures in this world.
Rakhi in ancient lore
According to Bhavishya Purana there was a battle between gods and demons, and Indra (the king of the gods) was defeated by the demons and he was totally shattered. At that time on advice of Guru Brihaspati, (the guru of Devtas) Indra's wife Sachi took a silken thread, popularly known as 'Raksha' and charged it with sacred verses for protection and tied it on Indra's wrist. As a result the strength of the sacred thread helped Indra conquered his enemies. Since then till today this festival is celebrated. It is considered as gesture of goodwill and protection.
According to one mythological allusion, Rakhi was intended to be the worship of the sea-god Varuna. Hence, offerings of coconut to Varuna, ceremonial bathing and fairs at waterfronts accompany this festival.
Once, Lord Indra stood almost vanquished in a long-drawn battle against the demons. Full of remorse, he sought the advice of Guru Brihaspati, who suggested for his action the auspicious day of Shravan Purnima. On that day, Indra's wife and Brihaspati tied a sacred thread on the wrist of Indra, who then attacked the demon with renewed force and routed him.
Stories from the ancient Puranas have it that King Bali's stronghold had been the Raakhi. While tying the Rakhi, therefore, a couplet mentioning this fact is still uttered in some traditions: "I am tying a Rakhi on you, like the one on mighty demon king Bali. Be firm, O Rakhi, do not falter."
* Ram Lingam is a freelance culture writer. If you wish to suggest any topic on Indian heritage to write on, please email him at indologynz@gmail.com.