Stories and legends of raksha bandhan
As every traditional Indian festival is derived from some legendary ancient tales or stories, festival of raksha bandhan is no exception. Tale and stories associated with Rakhi festival gives the message of devotion, unity and brotherhood between the family, society and country in large. Festival of raksha bandhan has been celebrated since time immemorial. Though the exact date of its origin is not known, historians have recorded the existence of this festival during the times of Alexander and Mahabharata. In this article, we will go through all such legendary stories related to “Raksha bandhan”. In addition to the article posted yesterday (Stories and legends of raksha bandhan), this article will give you many reasons to celebrate this festival with great devotion, fervor and gaiety.
Why Raksha bandhan is celebrated in holy month of Shravan
Before I dwell into the stories, let us first understand why this festival is celebrated in the holy month of ‘Shravan’.
Holy month of shravan is regarded as the month of devotion that fills the heart of devotees with all shades and hues of devotion filled with emotions. In this Holy month, Brahmins take oath of their religious duty, woman pray to god for a good loving husband, farmers pray for better monsoon and so on. Ancient historical stories have increased the value of this festival fourfold.
Traditionally, Brahmins used to tie thread to all devotees & kinsmen, wives to their husbands (specially during war for safety and protection) after conducting a yagna(ritual to seek blessings of god) ceremony in holy month of shravan. This later got changed as sister tying the sacred thread on their brother’s wrist to bring goodwill, blessings and prosperity. These stories will give you an indication on the transformation of raksha bandhan over the period of time.
Why Popularity of Raksha bandhan has increased in modern times
It is said that popularity of Raksha bandhan increased after the invasion by foreign rulers. To protect the brothers from cruel invaders, sister would tie rakhi on the wrists of their brothers to ensure safety and protection. In return, brother would take the pledge of protecting the honor of their sisters from cruel invaders. This inculcated a healthy pure relationship between brothers and sisters. In 1983, when Swami Vivekananda addressed his speech at World Religious Parliament in America with “Brothers and Sisters of America”, the entire crowd was thrilled with emotions and clapped continuously for many seconds.
Tales from spiritual Scriptures
There are many evidences from ancient grandiose stories that foretell us how this festival of ‘raksha bandhan’ evolved over the course of time. They are:-
Lord Indra and Indrani:
Legends refer to the war between Indra(Lord of heaven) and demon ‘Brutra’. Under the leadership of demon ‘Brutra’, demons attacked the kingdom of ‘Indra’. On the verge of defeat, Indra was depressed and approached guru ‘Brihaspati’ for a quick solution. Brihaspati gave the remedy of tying a sacred thread empowered by sacred hymns on his wrist on the auspicious occasion of ‘Shravan Purnima’. Hearing this, Wife of Indra, queen ‘Sachi’, also known as Indrani, took a thread, charged it with sacred hymns for protection and tied it on indra wrist with the blessings of good luck, safety and victory. Because of the power of this charged thread, indra became inconvincible and easily conquered his enemies. This is believed to be the start of Raksha bandhan where a wife ties a thread on her husband for safety and protection on the auspicious day of ‘Shravan Purnima’.
Yama and Yamuna:
Yama(Lord of death) was blessed with immortality by her sister ‘Yamuna’. Yamuna would tie a sacred thread of immortality to lord Yama every year on the day of “Shravan Purnima”. Pleased by her gesture, yama declared that anyone who keeps his promise of protecting his sister against all troubles would be blessed with everlasting long life.
Demon Bali and Goddess Lakshmi:
According to this story, Lord Vishnu abandoned his abode ‘Vaikunth’ to safeguard the kingdom of his greatest devotee cum demon ‘Bali’. Goddess Lakshmi wanted her lord to come back to ‘Vaikunth’ immediately. Disguised as a Brahmin, she went to bali and requested refuge till her husband comes back.
On the auspicious day of ‘Shravan Purnima’, Goddess Laxmi tied the sacred thread empowered with divine powers to King ‘Bali’.
Goddess Lakshmi tying Rakhi to demon king bali
Bali was quite surprised by the extra-ordinary divine power of a simple Brahmin. Before giving some present, He realized that he is no ordinary Brahmin and requested him to reveal his true identity. Goddess Lakshmi showed her true self and answered him on why she came to his kingdom. Demon bali was touched by her love, feelings and emotions for lord Vishnu and requested the lord Vishnu to accompany her immediately. He sacrificed his lord for Goddess ‘Lakshmi’ and gifted lord Vishnu to goddess lakshmi. So, this festival is also called Baleva, meaning “King Bali devotion to Lord”. Since then, a tradition emerged to invite sister for thread tying ceremony on the auspicious day of Shravan Purnima.
According to another slightly different story, Goddess lakshmi disguised herself as a small girl and reached the court of king Bali. Impressed by the beauty, wit and intelligence of this small girl, Bali asked her to demand a boon. This girl asked for ‘Lord vishnu’. Bali immediately realized that this girl is none other than goddess Lakshmi. He fell onto the feet of small girl and requested “Mata (Mother), who will protect my kingdom if the lord is not here?” Goddess Lakshmi then tore a piece of her yellow chunri(cloth), charged it with powers and tied it on the wrist of king Bali and said that “This thread would now protect your kingdom”. In return, Demon king Bali gifted lord Vishnu to ‘goddess Lakshmi’.
This story is the reason why the following mantra is chanted on the day of Raksha Bandhan:
“Yena baddho Balee raajaa daanavendro mahaabalah, tena twaam anubadhnaami rakshe maa chala maa chala.”
Translation: “I tie you the Rakhi that was tied to king Bali, the king of Demons, O Rakhi, I pray that you never waver in protecting your devotee.”
Lord Krishna, Draupadi and pandavas:
Before the war of Mahabharata, Lord Krishna advised king ‘Yudhishtir’ to conduct a sacred ceremony for the safety and protection of his family and army against the dangers of war. Kunti, mother of pandavas tied rakhi to all his sons and grandsons. On the other side, Draupadi tied rakhi to his husbands, sons and lord Krishna.
Draupadi tying rakhi to lord Krishna
In Mahabharata, there is also a mention of an incident when blood was oozing out of the fingers of lord krishna after he killed shishupal with his sudarshan chakra. Seeing this, Draupadi tore a piece of cloth from her sari and tied it around his wound. Touched by her devotion, Lord Krishna took the pledge of her protection and promised to repay the debt manifold. Later, When Dushasan tried to disrobe Draupadi in front of all ministers of his kingdom, Lord Krishna protected her honor by extending her sari indefinitely. This was how He repaid the debt of sari (Rakhi) tied to Him by Draupadi. Despite of being the wife of five powerful warriors and daughter of powerful monarch, she trusted and prayed only to lord Krishna for help and protection.
Dushasan disrobe draupadi while their husband watches
Stories from modern historical records
King Alexander and King Porus:
In 300 BC, when Alexander attacked India at the border of Afghanistan, he was resisted by the heroic effort of king ‘Puru’ (also known as porus) of western India. Bravery of king puru created a shadow of doubt on Alexander’s wife ‘Roxana’ on his husband safety because his army was very exhausted and the defeat looked inevitable. To make sure that king Puru don’t kill Alexander, Wife of Alexander approached king Puru with a rakhi and requested for his husband safety and protection. In accordance to Hindu customs, king Puru accepted her as sister without any hesitation and agreed to her request of not killing Alexander in battle. Next day, when Alexander fell down from his horse and king Puru was very close to killing him, he was reminded about his promise given to Greek sister and so, he refrained from delivering the final deathly blow on Alexander at the cost of getting defeated by Alexander. Alexander was greatly impressed by these princely ethical values of Puru and asked him to continue ruling his kingdom but under the flag of Greece kingdom. This is the oldest story of raksha bandhan in recorded western history. ‘Roxana’ was the wife of enemy king and no way related to king ‘Puru’, yet the thread of rakhi obliged him to protect the love of his sister ‘Roxana’ even at the cost of his own defeat. Such should be the sacrifice of brother toward her sister.
<>
Queen Karnawati and Emperor Humayun
Popularity of Raksha Bandhan increased multifold after widowed queen Karnavati of Chitoor sent a rakhi to mughal emperor ‘Humayun’ for help against invasion by Gujarat king ‘Bahadur Shah
Queen karnavati sending rakhi to humayun
Under normal circumstances, emperor humayun would have never helped a Hindu rajput but knowing the significance of rakhi in Hindu culture, he immediately marched to chitoor for the protection of her sister ‘Karnavati’. Note the fact that he was engaged in an expedition against Bengal ad went against the will of his soldiers and ministers. By the time he reached chittoor, ‘Bahadur shah’ had already sack Queen Karnavati fortress. To protect the honor of her kinsmen, Karnavati along with 13,000 other women immolated themselves in fire. Outraged by this incident, humayun threw out Bahadur Shah and restored the kingdom by making Karnavati son, ‘Vikramjit Singh’, the new king of chitoor. Disheartened Humayun took a pinch of ash from Karmawati's pyre and applied it on his forehead (completing the ritual of raksha bandhan) and addressed his pain, affection and respect to the dead queen.
Though this story had a painful end, it shows the promise held by the brother to a sister of other faith. A perfect example of cross-religion love and affection
0
Rabindranth tagore and freedom struggle
The most historical reference to raksha bandhan in recent times is that of Rabindranath Tagore. This was the time when British Empire decided to break Bengal on the basis of religion. To protest against this British move and with the motive of uniting all Hindus and muslims, Rabindra Nath Tagore called for a sacred congregation called ‘Rakhi Mahotsavas’.
Woman tying rakhi to statue of rabindranath tagore
This meant to celebrate Raksha Bandhan as the festival of love, unity and brotherhood between different ethnic groups irrespective of their religion, race and culture. To him, ‘Raksha bandhan’ should be the celebration of mankind and humanity and peaceful existence in the society. This has especially become very important today due to inter-religion intolerance.
Tying rakhi to tree for protection of nature
In this 21st century, modern generation has given a new definition to Raksha bandhan. To protect the nature from destruction and encourage protection of
trees, Some NGO’s came up with a unique idea of tying a rakshastura(sacred thread) to any tree and then taking the pledge of protecting the tree under all circumstances.
1
Tying Rakhi on trees
1
I will end this article with an unconfirmed story from purana which sounds very similar to story of Lord Vishnu fifth avatar ‘Vamana’
Once upon a time, there was a king ‘Shridharma’ of Ujjain who had four Brahmin ministers named ‘Brahaspati’, ‘Bali’, ‘Prahlad’ and ‘Namuchi’. King followed Jainism and all his four secretaries were against Jainism.
Once revered sage ‘Akampana’ accompanied by 700 odd seers visited his kingdom and stayed in the forest in the outer limits of the city. When king heard about ‘Akampana’ visit, he immediately decided to pay them a visit. At first, the four ministers tried to stop him but seeing the king adamant on his visit, they also followed him into the forest.
Sage ‘Akampana’ forecasted king visit and ordered his companions to keep mum on the behavior and attitude of king ministers. Reaching the sage hermitage, king prayed and worshipped the sages. On his return journey back to the kingdom, he met a sage ‘Shrut Sagar’, who was unaware of the king Sage ‘Akampana’ order and nature of king ministers. Proud of their knowledge, ministers started debating unwontedly with sage ‘Shrut Sagar’, but were easily defeated by learned ‘Shrut Sagar’. His ministers were not happy with their defeat in front of their king and decided to teach this sage a lesson. On reaching Sage ‘Akampana’ hermitage, sage ‘Shrut Sagar’ narrated this event to sage ‘Akampana’. Worried by this unwanted debate, sage ‘Akampana’ thought for a while and then requested sage ‘Shrut Sagar’ to meditate at the place of debate whole night.
At night, all four ministers reached the same place and attempted to kill sage ‘Shrut Sagar’ by sword. Seeing this, Lord of forest binded their hand in lifted position due to which, they were immovable and stood at the same place whole night with lifted hand, watching the sage meditating under the tree. Next early morning, when the villagers saw this strange behavior, they cursed king ministers and prayed sage ‘Shrut Sagar’ for his meditation. When king heard about this event, he banished all ministers from his kingdom after insulting them. Wandering from city to city, they reached hastinapur, where they were appointed as ministers by king ‘Padma’, who was unaware of their past behavior with sage ‘Shrut Sagar’. Under the advice of four ministers, king ‘padma’ defeated his rebel king ‘Singhabala’. Pleased by the four ministers, King ‘Padma’ requested Bali to demand a boon. Thinking for a while, Bali requested the king to not honor boon at this time, but at some other time when he needs it.
After few days, Sage ‘Akampana’ along with his 700 sages settled at the outer limits of hastinapur. Waiting for this moment, Bali along with his three friends (ministers) approached the king and requested him to honor the boon reserved by him. After the king ‘Yes’, they demanded to rule the city of hastinapur for seven days with full authority and no restrictions. Thinking them as wise person, king accepted their demand readily.
Bali then started troubling Sage ‘Akampana’ and his 700 sages. Seeing this, Sage ‘Akampan’ requested all his companions to go into deep meditation so as to be unaware of the incidents happening in the outside world. At this time, younger brother of king ‘Padma’, ‘Vishnu kumar’ was meditating in the same forest. He was blessed with many boons and supernatural powers like ‘Vikria Riddhi’ (Power of expanding or contracting body). Guru of ‘Vishnu kumar’ was living in the kingdom of ‘Mithila’ at that time. He narrated the incident of hastinapur to ‘Kshulllaka Pushpadanta’ and also told him that only ‘Vishnu kumar’ has the powers and wisdom to solve this crisis.
Kshullaka Pushpadanta immediately reached hastinapur and narrated ‘Vishnu Kumar’ on the whole crisis. First ‘Vishnu kumar’ went to his brother ‘Padma’ and requested him to stop the minister’s atrocities but king expressed his helplessness due to the boon honored to Bali. Then ‘Vishnu kumar’ took the body of ‘Vaman Brahmin’ and approached Bali who was preparing for a sacred yagna at that time.
Seeing the Vaman Brahmin in his sacred yagna, He decided to please him and requested him to demand anything. Brahmin initially denied for anything but on Bali insistence, demanded little piece of land equivalent to his three steps. Bali requested Brahmin to ask more but Brahmin said this little piece of land would be enough for rest of his life. On agreeing to his demand, ‘Vishnu Kumar’ expanded his body to cover the whole earth. He placed his first step on ‘Manushottar Parvat’, second on ‘Sumeru Parvat’ and didn’t have space for his third step now. Out of fear, Bali fell down on the feet of ‘Vishnu Kumar’ and asked for apology.
Vishnu leg on bali head
All deities worshiped ‘Vishnu Kumar’ for ending the crisis of sage ‘Akampana’ and seven hundred odd sages. Bali along with his friends begged for forgiveness to sage ‘Akampana’ and his companions. They lived rest of their life serving these sages. ‘Vishnu kumar’ performed severe penance and meditation to attain salvation.
Since this whole incident occurred during the month of shravan and seven hundred sages were saved and protected, ‘Raksha Bandhan’ is celebrated on this day of ‘Shravan Shukla Purnima’ (full moon day in month of Shravan).
Conclusion
Such tales and stories have strengthened the bond between different ethnic members of the society and have inculcated the feeling of love, brotherhood and unity among the general masses. These were just some of the stories from history that should compel you to celebrate this festival with great faith, enthusiasm and joy. I am sure; you will find many more reasons to celebrate this festival grandiosely
Wishing all of you a very happy Raksha Bandhan
Note: Images used on this website
are either a production of Bhaktivedanta Book Trust(https://www.krishna.com), Iskcon
Foundation or were found in google search under "Free to use and share". If any
of the images presented here violates copyright issues or infringes anyone copyright
or are not under "Fair use", then please bring it to our notice. Read
Disclaimer for more.
Share this to your friends. One of your friend is
waiting for your share.
Related Articles
Bhagavad gita Chapter 1,verse 1 english and hindi poetic translation with learnings
Stories and legends of raksha bandhan
Why and how raksha bandhan is celebrated
Post Comment