The Rakshabandhan stories that put the significance of this festival in perspective

These Rakshabandhan stories elaborate upon the significance of this beautiful festival of brothers and sisters and can't be missed at this occasion.

Once Yudhishthitra asked Krishna to narrate him one such Rakshabandhan story, listening to which can keep all the mundane suffering at bay. Krishna obliged. He narrated : Once a fierce war was waged between devas and asuras. It kept going on for twelve years. Asuras even defeated Indra, the lord of the devas, in the battle. The disgraced devas took shelter in Amarawati as the victorious asuras took control of three lokas. Daityaraj, the lord of the asuras, decreed that from here onward he is to be worshipped not devas. This brought all worshipping rituals to a standstill. The dharma started to get weakened and devas lost their grace. In such dire situation, Indra fell into the feet of his guru Brahaspati and pleaded him to show way. Brahaspati suggested him to do Raksha Vidhaan. On the auspicious day of Shravan Poornima, the Raksha Vidhaan was perfomed by the Indra. Indrani did Swasti Vachan for brahmins and tied a Raksha Sutra in the wrist of right hand of Indra. An empowered Indra returned to the battle field and routed the asuras. Thus began the ritual of tying Raksha Sutra on Shravan Poornima.

As per Indian history, even the Muslim rulers were aware of the sanctity of the Raksha Bandhan festival. The legend goes that once the Mughal emperor Jehangir received a Raksha Sutra from a Rajput woman, which prompted him to extend the vow of security to her. The empress of Chittorh Karnawati also had sent Rakhi to Humayun and Humayun too had fought with the Sultan of Gujarat to save the honor of his sister. Who can forget the Rakhi of Panna, in this regard? Once two princely states of Rajasthan were fighting tooth and nail with each other and Mughals attacked one of them to thicken the plot. One princely state smelled an opportunity to feast on the rout and embarked to extend their support to Mughals. Panna was a captive of Mughals then. When she heard of this, disgusted, she sent a Rakhi to Rajputs who were all ready to complicit in a war against their brother Rajputs. Rakhi ashamed them to the extent that they actually invaded on Mughals instead and defeated them. Thus the fragile knot of Rakhi helped Rajputs to stand together and overpower Mughals.

As for an another Rakhi legend, once Krishna hurt himself and blood started to flow out of his hand profusely. His sister Dropadi could not bear the sight. She immediately split a rag out of her sari and wrapped it around the wound. Bleeding subsequently stopped. Krishna took this gesture of Dropadi equivalent to tying a know of Raksha Sutra and vowed for her security. After a while, when Dushasan dared to rob Dropadi off her sari (Cheer Haran) in full public view, Krishna came to rescue his sister and made her sari an inexhaustible wrap of cloth around her body. This legend also can be taken in the context of Raksha Bandhan's significance.