Raksha Bandhan

How it is kept

1. 01

   The rakhi tied on the brother’s right wrist with the Yena baddho mantra

2. 02

   Tilak, aarti and a sweet, and a gift from the brother

3. 03

   Shravani Upakarma: a new sacred thread and the start of Vedic study

4. 04

   Narali Purnima: a coconut offered to the sea on the Konkan coast

01Indrani’s thread and Bali’s

The Bhavishya Purana tells that when Indra was losing to the asuras, his wife Shachi, on the advice of Brihaspati, tied a thread charged with mantras on his wrist on Shravana Purnima, and he won. The mantra recited while tying the rakhi recalls another raksha: yena baddho bali raja danavendro mahabalah, tena tvam pratibadhnami rakshe ma chala ma chala, with this I bind you, with which mighty Bali, king of the danavas, was bound; O raksha, do not slip. The household katha adds that Lakshmi tied a thread on Bali to win back Vishnu, who had stayed as the guard of Bali’s kingdom.

02One full moon, three rites

In homes of the north the thali holds roli, rice, a lamp, sweets and the rakhi; the sister marks her brother’s forehead, ties the thread, feeds him a sweet, and he gives her a gift. The same morning, in Vedic families across India, men bathe in a river and take a new yajnopavita at the Shravani Upakarma, beginning the year’s study of the Veda; in Tamil Nadu and Kerala this is Avani Avittam. On the Konkan coast, Koli fishermen throw a coconut into the sea on Narali Purnima, marking the end of the monsoon closure and the opening of the fishing season.

Also this month