Raksha Bandhan is a popular and traditionally Hindu annual rite or ceremony that is central to a festival of the same name celebrated in South Asia. It is also celebrated in other parts of the world significantly 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. They symbolically protect them, receive a gift in return, and traditionally invest the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care.
A rakhi being tied during Raksha Bandhan
Nazeer Akbarabadi (1735–1830) wrote one of the first nazms (poems) in Hindustani on Rakhi. This is the last "band" (stanza); the poet fantasizes that he (a Muslim) would like to dress up as a "Bamhan" (Brahmin priest), with sacred thread and mark on forehead, so that he too can tie the threads on the wrists of all the beautiful people around him.
Shopping, 13 August 1951 (Shravana, 11th day, waxing moon). The Hindu lunar calendar dates are below the English ones.
Boards train for natal home, 15 August 1951. (Shravana, 13th day waxing moon)
Śrāvaṇa is the fifth month of the Hindu calendar. In India's national civil calendar, Śrāvaṇa is the fifth month of the year, typically beginning in mid to late July and ending in late August. In the Tamil calendar, it is known as Āvani and is the fifth month of the solar year. In lunar religious calendars, Śrāvaṇa begins on the new moon or the full moon and is the fifth month of the year. Srabon is the fourth month of the solar Bengali calendar. It is also the fourth month of the Nepali calendar. Śrāvaṇa is also the second month of Varsha.
Upākarma in Tamil Nadu state by Brahmins in the month of Śrāvaṇa
