Raksha Bandhan, also Rakshabandhan,[1] or simply Rakhi, is an annual rite in South Asia, or among people of South Asian origin, centred around the tying of a thread, talisman, or amulet on the wrist as a form of ritual protection. The protection is offered principally by sisters to brothers, but also by priests to patrons, and sometimes by individuals to real or potential benefactors. Differing versions of the rite have been traditionally performed by Hindus in northern India, western India, Nepal, and former colonies of the British Empire to which Hindus had migrated in the 19th-century, and have included, in addition, rites with names rendered as Saluno, Silono, and Rakri. The rituals associated with these rites, however, have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration, the movies, social interaction, and promotion by politicized Hinduism, as well as by the nation state.
