Raksha Bandhan, also Rakshabandhan,[1] 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,[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]

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.[21] 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.[22][23] 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.[24] The brothers serve as life-long intermediaries between their sisters'
married- and parental homes,[25] 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,[26] and Hindu and Muslim divisions.
[27] 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.[28] Raksha Bandhan is also celebrated by Hindu communities in
other parts of the world.[29][30] 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.[31][32] 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.[33]