RAKSHA BANDHAN GREETINGS

                                        

Raksha Bandhan  Greetings

"Karunakar Draupadi pukari

Patt mein lipat gaye Banwari

Nirakh rahe nar naari

Jai Madhav Madan Murari"

(Draupadi called out to the Lord with compassionate  hands, 

And Banwari wrapped himself into the fabric of her Sari,

All the men and women stood watching in wonder,

Victory  to Madhava, Madana and Murari.)

The Indian festival of the protective bond celebrated on the full moon of Shravana in August, where a sister ties a consecrated thread, Rakhi, on her brother's wrist as a Kavachaor protective armour, invoking lifelong mutual duty. Its religious background lies in the Hindu concept of *Rnanubandha, a sacred bond created through mantra-charged thread, with Puranic roots in Sachi tying such a thread on Indra for victory over the Asuras, and its history is traced in Sanskrit literature and royal traditions as a domestic rite that renews dharma within the family. 

Its most revered theological archetype, central to Pahari painting, is the **episode of Sri Krishna and Draupadi: when Sri  Krishna wounds his finger on the Sudarshana Chakra, Draupadi tears the border of her Sari to bandage it, and Sri  Krishna vows "Akshayam Bhavatu" that her honour shall be endless ,  a vow fulfilled during her vastraharan in the Kaurava court when he renders her garment infinite; this bond by choice, not blood, is therefore considered the first Rakhi and the purest expression of sacred protection.

RAKSHA BANDHAN GREETINGS 

( Avtar Mota )

PS

*Rnanubandha means a bond formed by past debts.

In Sanskrit, rna means debt and anubandha means connection or tie that follows. It refers to the belief that relationships in this life arise because of Karmic debts or obligations left unsettled in previous births, which draw souls together again to repay, resolve or fulfil them.

**Draupadi tying cloth to Sri  Krishna is not in the critical Mahabharata. The canonical text has only her Vastraharan and Sri Krishna's protection. The finger-cut and Sari-tearing episode comes from later folk Kathas and Puranic retellings, now celebrated as the first Rakhi by tradition.

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