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Raksha Bandhan, Also Rakshabandhan,: Hindu Indian Subcontinent Amulet
Raksha Bandhan, Also Rakshabandhan,: Hindu Indian Subcontinent Amulet
same name, celebrated in India, Nepal and other parts of the Indian subcontinent, and among people around the world influenced by
Hindu culture. On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman, or amulet, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers, symbolically
protecting them, receiving a gift in return, and traditionally investing the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care.
[3]
Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August. The
expression "Raksha Bandhan," Sanskrit, literally, "the bond of protection, obligation, or care," is now principally applied to this ritual.
Until the mid-20th-century, the expression was more commonly applied to a similar ritual, also held on the same day, with precedence in
ancient Hindu texts, in which a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred
thread, and receives gifts of money; in some places, this is still the case. [5][6] In contrast, the sister-brother festival, with origins in folk
culture, had names which varied with location, with some rendered as Saluno,[7][8] Silono,[9] and Rakri.[5] A ritual associated with Saluno
included the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers. [7]