Raksha Bandhan is not just a festival of threads and gifts; it’s a celebration of the love of brothers and sisters. From ancient time sisters are tying a thread (Rakhi) around the wrist of their brothers and the brothers are giving them the lifelong promise of protection.

The beautiful part of this festival is that it is not only for biological brothers and sisters. If you consider someone like your brother or sister, you can celebrate it. This is the beauty of Indian festivals that they involve everyone in the celebration. There are many stories related to this festival when people from different religions offered their respect to this Indian custom.

Here we have collected a lot of stories behind the celebration of Raksha Bandhan.

Lord Vishnu and Indrani

It is believed that Indrani was the first woman who tied the thread on Lord Vishnu’s wrist as his sister and took the promise from him to protect her husband during the war of Gods and Demons.

According to another mythological story, when the king of Gods Indra lost a battle against Demons, then Guru Brahspati, the teacher of Gods prepared a Raksha Sutra and gave Indra to wear it.

Krishna and Draupadi

This story is related to Indian mythology. Krishna and Draupadi share a beautiful bond, some call it friendship and some name it  a teacher-student relation but according to one incident, Krishna helped Draupadi as her brother once.

This story took place on the occasion of Rajsuya Yagya conducted by Pandava’s. During the Rajsuya Yagya, Krishna killed Shishupal. After Shishupal’s death, Krishna got a cut on his finger. His finger was bleeding. When Draupadi watch this, she cut off a piece of cloth from her saree and tied it on Krishna’s finger.

In favor of this sweet gesture, Krishna also protected her.  In the court of King Dhritarashtra when Draupadi was disrobed in public view, Krishna made her saree endless to save her from embarrassment.

King Bali and Goddess Lakshmi

According to one more mythological story, Bali, the grandson of Prahlad was a powerful demon king. He was also a great devotee of Lord Vishnu like his grandfather. Bali became unbeatable on the battlefield. This made Indra very insecure so he requested Lord Vishnu to help him.

Lord Vishnu disguised himself as a dwarf (popularly known as Vamana Avtaar) and arrived on earth. He requested to king Bali to give him only that much space which he can cover by his three steps. King Bali granted him his wish. Now the dwarf changed himself into Vishnu and her covered earth, sky, and the universe in three steps.

Now Bali in generosity gave everything to Lord Vishnu. Bali impressed Lord with his generosity and Lord disguised himself as the doorkeeper of Bali so he could save him.  This made his wife Goddess Lakshmi restless. Now, to bring her husband back she disguised herself as a Brahmin lady. She went to Bali on the day of Purnima in the month of Shravana; Goddess Lakshmi tied a thread on the wrist of Bali and prayed for her happiness. Bali was very touched by this. He asked her to ask for anything. Now, Lakshmi pointed at the doorkeeper as her husband. Confused Bali asked the doorkeeper to go with her wife.

Now, the doorkeeper and Brahmin lady both revealed their true identity to Bali. It is said that from that day Raksha Bandhan is celebrated on the day of Purnima (full moon night) of Shravana.

We Indians do not celebrate the Mother’s Day or Father’s day like the western countries but we celebrate the bond of brothers and sisters. This celebration is much older than the celebration of Mother’s or Father’s day in the west.

With the time Raksha Bandhan has also changed. Earlier brother used to save their sisters from the enemies at the time of war. And now sisters get gifts, chocolate and fancy meals from their brothers. But the sentiments of togetherness are still present. No matter how far brothers and sisters live but on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, they try to visit each other.

We shared a few famous ancient stories related to Raksha Bandhan. If you know about any other story related to this occasion then you can share it with us by mentioning in the comment box.