Raksha Bandhan

Ahhh... finally a post on festivals that I might be able to gvie justice to! And I'll be doing research after so long! My god its quite a tiring thought - even this little bit of superficial googling seems so painful at tis point! Yes I know.. Ive gotten lazy... Ive become so used to just mind-numbing continual rounds of shopping that I just cant sit still anymore, let alone do anything remotely intelligent. Except of course, read Shalimar the Clown, which has been taking up almost all my free and nap time and according me much awe, while inducing annoyance in my mom when she sees me when I should be 'doing work' (whatever that entails), and subsequent annoyance in me when I am being disturbed by my mothers sense of duty to attend such extraneous events as promos and sales.

But anyway, on to Raksha Bandhan, or, as it is colloquially called these days, Rakhi. It seems to evolve from mythological and historical incidents that stretches very very far back. Wikipedia has the most extensive entry on it. So below is an almost verbatim reproduction of what's written in there:

Basically, in the Bhavishya Purana, it is written that when Indra lost the intermittent battle with the demons, this particular time with Vritra, Indra's wife Sachi tied to her husband's wrist a sacred thread imbued with mantras, enabling him to win the battle.

Yamuna also tied her brother Yama a rakhi, granting him immortality. He was greatly touched by this. For more information on the abiding love between the siblings Yama and his river sister see my Diwali post.

Also, Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, tore off a piece of her sari to bandage Krishna's wrist when his finger was bleeding during the Rajsuya Yagya. Touched, Krishna declared himself bound to her, promising to pay the debt manifold. Keeping true to his word, he saved her on many occasions, the most famous of which is the extended sari episode in the game of Dice.

In terms of historical value, here's a little-known snippet for you. King Puru of India staunchly defended his kingdom against Alexander the Great's invasion. Concerned for her husband's safety and having heard of the rakhi ceremony, Alexander's wife sent Puru a thread, after wish he resisted attacking Alexander.

Besides, you all should know the famous story, the first on documented history of the medieval Rajput queen Karnavati, widowed Rani of Chittor, who sent Humayun a rakhi in a letter asking him from protection from the attack of the Muslim Bahadur Shah, king of Gujarat/Mewar. Touched, he abandoned his own ongoing military campaign to come to her aid.

Basically on Raksha Bandhan, the girl is supposed to go to her brother's house, tie him a rakhi, which can be anything from a simple coloured threads to elaborate commercialised gadgets made of ribbon, foil, gold, chocolates, etc, anoint his forehead with kumkum and rice. They feed each other sweets and she gets cash and bows down to him. (I think earlier the bowing down was done BEFORE the cash was received hehe). Usually she stays for the meal. This whole practice stems from the time of King Bali, at the time of Vishnu's Dwarf or Vamana avatar. When Vishnu was guarding Vali's kingdom, Lakshmi his wife was missing him and wnated him to return. So she disguised herself as a Brahmin woman and tied a sacred thread to Bali during the Shravana Purnima celebrations. Upon coming to know of her identity, he sent Vishnu back with her (this is a confused story and I dont know the point but anyway).

I love Raksha Bandhan because even though it can be a weekday, the family always takes a halfday off and gets together for lunch. Now, its not the same what with everyone working and studied and married. In fact, the only good thing about my family being unable to unite at one location for a meal this occasion was that I got to eat all my favourite snacks all day! Idli-chutney in the morning, rava dhokla at home for lunch, Ragda Patties (can you imagine I gre up spelling it pattice because I never saw it in written form? Whoever thought to call a flattened ball of mushed food a patty? Well, pat-ty. Hmmm.) and sevpuri for tea. Followed by pizza and hummus and lavache for dinner. Man I seriously overate and now feel seriously guilty. Why do I have this stupid problem of greed and gluttony? It sooo shows on my bum! I miss being fit and in control of my food intake.