About Raksha Bandhan — The History, Mythology and Meaning of Rakhi
Raksha Bandhan is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in India and among Indian communities worldwide. It is a festival of siblings — specifically of sisters and brothers — observed on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Shravan, which falls in August each year.
In 2026, Raksha Bandhan falls on Friday, 28 August. For the exact auspicious Muhurat timings and how the date is calculated each year, visit our When is Rakhi This Year page.
The festival is observed across India by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, and has spread with the Indian diaspora to countries across the world — celebrated in the same spirit whether the sister and brother are in the same room or separated by an ocean.
The Meaning Behind Raksha Bandhan
The name itself holds the meaning of the festival. Raksha means protection. Bandhan means bond. Together, Raksha Bandhan is the bond of protection — a sister tying a thread on her brother's wrist as a symbol of her love and prayers for his wellbeing, and a brother accepting it as a promise to protect and care for his sister.
The ceremony on the day of the festival follows a sequence that has remained largely unchanged for generations. The sister prepares a Pooja thali with the Rakhi, roli, chawal, a diya and sweets. She applies a tilak on her brother's forehead, performs an aarti, and ties the Rakhi on his wrist. The brother accepts the Rakhi and offers gifts or money to his sister as a gesture of love and gratitude. Sweets are exchanged and shared.
What happens in those few minutes is deceptively simple. The thread itself is not precious — it can be cotton, silk, or silver — but what it carries is. The ritual is a formal acknowledgment, renewed each year, of a relationship that neither distance nor time is supposed to diminish.
For the full ceremony guide and celebration ideas, visit our How to Celebrate Rakhi page.
Raksha Bandhan in History
Some of the most well-known historical accounts of Rakhi involve women using the thread not just as a symbol of sibling love but as a gesture of appeal — asking for protection from someone outside the family.
The most widely cited example involves Alexander the Great and the Indian king Porus. When Alexander invaded India in 326 BCE, his wife Roxana sent a Rakhi thread to Porus, asking him not to harm her husband in battle. Porus, who was known for his honour, respected the gesture. When he faced Alexander on the battlefield and had the opportunity to strike him personally, he held back — honouring the thread on his wrist as a promise made to the woman who had sent it.
A later historical account involves Rani Karnavati, the widowed queen of Chittor, and the Mughal emperor Humayun. In 1535, facing an invasion she could not resist militarily, Karnavati sent a Rakhi to Humayun appealing for his protection. Humayun, moved by the gesture, set out immediately to help her defend Chittor. Though he arrived too late to prevent the tragedy that followed, his response to the Rakhi — treating it as a bond of obligation and honour — remains one of the most remembered stories associated with the festival.
Both accounts speak to something in the meaning of Rakhi that goes beyond the sibling relationship — the idea that the thread creates a bond of protection that carries moral weight, regardless of who sends it or receives it.
Raksha Bandhan in Hindu Mythology
Hindu mythology offers several stories that are considered the ancient origins of Raksha Bandhan, each illuminating a different aspect of what the thread represents.
The story of Draupadi and Krishna is among the most beloved. When Krishna cut his finger during a battle, Draupadi tore a strip from her sari and tied it around his wound to stop the bleeding. Krishna, deeply moved by this spontaneous act of care, considered himself bound to her as a brother and vowed to protect her whenever she needed him. That promise was famously fulfilled years later during the events of the Mahabharata, when Krishna came to Draupadi's aid in her moment of greatest vulnerability. The strip of cloth tied in a moment of concern became, in mythology, the origin of the sacred thread of Raksha Bandhan.
The story of Yama, the god of death, and his sister Yamuna adds another dimension to the festival. Yamuna tied a Rakhi on Yama's wrist and expressed her wish to see him regularly. Yama was so moved by his sister's love that he declared anyone who received a Rakhi from their sister and pledged to protect her would be blessed with immortality. This story is why Raksha Bandhan is sometimes called Yamuna Dwitiya in certain regional traditions — a connection between the festival and the sacred river that bears Yamuna's name.
Together these stories establish Raksha Bandhan not as a recent cultural invention but as something rooted deeply in both history and the oldest narrative traditions of India.
Rabindranath Tagore and the Broader Vision of Rakhi
Rabindranath Tagore saw in Raksha Bandhan something that could transcend the sibling relationship entirely. During the period of the Bengal partition in 1905 — a time of deep communal tension between Hindus and Muslims — Tagore promoted Rakhi as a symbol of unity and brotherhood between all people, regardless of religion or caste.
His vision was that the thread of the Rakhi could bind not just a sister and brother but an entire community — that the act of tying Rakhi on a neighbour's wrist, or on the wrist of someone from a different faith or background, was an act of choosing solidarity over division. He initiated a festival called Rakhi Mahotsav in which people tied Rakhis on each other as a declaration of mutual respect and shared humanity.
Tagore's interpretation of Raksha Bandhan remains one of the most expansive and philosophically rich understandings of the festival. The thread, in his vision, was not a boundary between insiders and outsiders but a bridge between them — the simplest possible symbol of the bond that human beings can choose to form with one another.
How Raksha Bandhan is Celebrated Today
Raksha Bandhan today is celebrated in forms that Tagore would likely have recognised — and in forms he could not have imagined.
In India, the festival retains its traditional shape — the Pooja thali, the morning ceremony, the exchange of gifts and sweets, the gathering of families. In cities and towns across the country, Rakhi stalls appear weeks before the festival, the markets fill with sisters choosing the right thread for their brothers, and the day itself has the particular quality of a festival that asks nothing except presence and intention.
For the millions of Indian families separated by distance — brothers working or studying abroad, sisters who have moved to different countries — Raksha Bandhan has found new expressions without losing its essential meaning. The ceremony happens on video calls, the Rakhi travels by courier from India to apartments in London, Toronto, Sydney and Dubai, and the thread on a brother's wrist in a foreign city carries the same weight it always has.
The festival has also grown more inclusive over time. Sisters tie Rakhis on sisters. Friends tie Rakhis on friends. The thread has expanded beyond its original definition while remaining, at its core, what it has always been — a simple, physical expression of a bond that the person wearing it has agreed to honour.
To explore the different types of Rakhi available today, visit our Types of Rakhi page. For regional names and variations of the festival across India, visit our Regional Names of Rakhi page.
Explore More About Rakhi
Raksha Bandhan has many dimensions — its date and timing, how it is celebrated, the different types of Rakhi available, and the regional traditions that give it different names and forms across India. We have dedicated pages for each of these: