How Rakshabandhan Started – Rakshabandhan, the holy festival of brother-sister love, has great significance in Hindu religion. This festival of Rakhi is celebrated with great enthusiasm across the country. The festival of Rakshabandhan is celebrated every year. On this day, sisters tie Rakhi on their brother’s wrist and take a promise to protect them. Actually, many stories related to the festival of Rakshabandhan are popular. But today we are going to tell you about the 5 most interesting historical and mythological stories which are also considered to be the beginning of this festival.
How Rakshabandhan Started – Top 5 Historical And Mythological Stories
The story of Krishna and Draupadi – the first story of Rakshabandhan is the most popular. During the time of Mahabharata, once Lord Krishna’s finger got injured and blood started flowing from it. Seeing this, Draupadi, who was also Krishna’s friend, tore Aanchal’s pallu and tied it around his severed finger. According to religious beliefs, the tradition of tying Rakshasutra or Rakhi started from this day. As you all know that when an attempt was being made to disrob Draupadi, it was Shri Krishna who protected her from everyone by saving her modesty.
Yudhishthira tied Rakhi to the soldiers – Another popular story of Rakhi is that in the war of Mahabharata, Yudhishthir asked Krishna that how can he overcome all the sorrows. So Krishna says that you tie Raksha Sutra to all your soldiers. With this your victory is certain. Yudhishthir does the same again and victory is assured. This incident happened on the full moon day of Shravan month, hence it came to be celebrated as Rakshabandhan and on the day of Rakshabandhan, Rakhi is tied to the soldiers.
Story of King Bali and Mother Lakshmi – King Bali was a very charitable king and a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Once King Bali was doing Yaksha to please God. To test his devotee, Lord Narayana disguised himself as a Brahmin and reached the yagya and asked for three steps of land as donation from King Bali. The king accepted the Brahmin’s demand. The Brahmin measured the entire land with his first step and the entire sky with his second step. There was nothing left for the third step, then King Bali asked the Brahmin to place the third step on his head. After this the Brahmin placed the third step on the head of King Bali.
He said that God, now everything of mine is gone. Now please accept my request and come and live with me in the underworld. God had to obey the king. On the other hand, Goddess Lakshmi became worried due to the non-return of Lord Hari Vishnu. Then she disguised herself as a poor woman and reached King Bali and tied Rakhi. The king asked to ask for anything in exchange of Rakhi. Saying this, Mother Lakshmi came into her true form and demanded the king to return her husband Hari Vishnu. Keeping the respect of Rakhi, King Bali sent Lord Vishnu back with Mother Lakshmi.
Story of Devraj Indra and Indrani – It is believed that once the demon Vritrasura ascended to heaven to take the throne of Indra. Vritrasura was very powerful and it was not easy to defeat him. To protect Devraj Indra in the war, his sister Indrani prepared a Rakshasutra with her power and tied it on Indra’s wrist. This Rakshasutra protected Indra and he became victorious in the war. Since then, sisters started tying Rakhi on their wrists to protect their brothers.
Story of Rani Karnavati and Emperor Humayun – Once upon a time, Rajputs in the country were fighting against Muslim invasion. After the death of her husband Rana Sanga, Queen Karnavati took over the command of Mewar. Queen Karnavati of Chittor had sent Rakhi along with a letter to Emperor Humayun requesting for protection of her kingdom and herself from the attack of Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. Humayun accepts Rakhi and leaves for Chittor to protect Queen Karnavati, but he is delayed in reaching and the queen commits Jauhar (immolates herself) to protect her honour. But keeping the promise, Humayun’s army drove out the Shah from Chittor and handed over the rule of Chittor to the queen’s son Vikramjit Singh.