Raksha Bandhan 2026
रक्षा बंधन
Raksha Bandhan falls on Friday, 28 August 2026 in New Delhi, on Shukla Purnima.
On Raksha Bandhan, a sister ties a thread on her brother's wrist and he promises her his protection. The “thread of protection” was not always about siblings, and its stories range from gods at war to a movement against the partition of Bengal.
Why this date
CalculatedIt falls on Shravana Purnima, the full moon of Shravana, with the thread tied in the afternoon window called Aparahna. Panchangs avoid Bhadra, a half-tithi that tradition treats as inauspicious and that often covers the first half of the Purnima. If Bhadra runs into the afternoon, the time moves later or to the next day.
That’s 20 days later than 8 August 2025 last year. Why it jumped
- Purnima begins
- 27 Aug, 9:09 AM
- It ends
- 28 Aug, 9:49 AM
2026 date by city
| New Delhi | Fri, 28 Aug |
|---|---|
| Mumbai | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Kolkata | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Chennai | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Bengaluru | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Hyderabad | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Ahmedabad | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Pune | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Jaipur | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Lucknow | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Patna | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Varanasi | Fri, 28 Aug |
| London | Thu, 27 Aug |
| New York | Thu, 27 Aug |
| San Francisco | Thu, 27 Aug |
| Toronto | Thu, 27 Aug |
| Sydney | Thu, 27 Aug |
| Singapore | Fri, 28 Aug |
| Dubai | Thu, 27 Aug |
| Port Louis | Thu, 27 Aug |
Dates in bold differ from New Delhi’s. Calculated by rule; local practice can differ.
One festival, many stories
Puranic traditionIndrani ties a thread on Indra
Britannica points to the Bhavishyottara Purana, where Krishna tells Yudhishthira how Indrani tied a protective band on Indra's wrist during his war with the asuras. A wife protecting her husband: so the old idea of the thread is about protection, and the brother-sister meaning seems to be a later layer.
Widely toldBali, Lakshmi and Krishna's finger
You'll also hear that Lakshmi tied a thread on the demon-king Bali to free Vishnu from his service, and that Draupadi tore her sari to bind Krishna's bleeding finger. Bali's story in the Bhagavata Purana (8.18–22) doesn't include this thread, as far as we can confirm, and the Draupadi episode is widely told but we couldn't locate it in the Mahabharata. They're both best treated as popular tradition.
RajasthanRani Karnavati and Humayun
The famous story has the widowed queen of Mewar sending a rakhi to the Mughal emperor Humayun when Bahadur Shah attacks. It reached a wide audience through James Tod's nineteenth-century Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. Satish Chandra's history is reported as noting that no contemporary writer mentions it, and it's widely doubted now.
BengalTagore's rakhi against partition
When the British partitioned Bengal in 1905, Rabindranath Tagore called on Hindus and Muslims to tie rakhis on each other as a sign of unity. Here the thread has nothing to do with brothers and sisters at all.
West coast and southThe same full moon, a different day
Fishing communities on the western coast mark the same full moon as Narali Purnima, offering coconuts to the sea as the fishing season reopens. In the south, Brahmin men change their sacred threads on Avani Avittam. It's one moon with several purposes.
Common questions
What people do
- Tying a rakhi on a brother's right wrist, with a tilak and sweets
- Brothers giving a gift or money and promising protection
- Rakhis sent across cities and countries by post
- Tying threads between people who aren't related by blood, as a chosen bond
Why can't you tie rakhi during Bhadra?
Because timing tradition considers Bhadra, or the Vishti half-tithi, inauspicious for ceremonies like this. A popular story also connects it to Ravana and his sister Shurpanakha. You won't find any evidence of harm from it; this is about what your family and priest choose to follow.
Did Karnavati really send a rakhi to Humayun?
Probably not. The story is widely repeated, but historians have noted that no contemporary source mentions it, and it became famous through later retellings.
Does a sister have to be tying rakhi on a brother?
No. Many sisters tie rakhis on each other, and friends do it too. Earlier tradition, as with Indrani, had a wife tying it on a husband, and in 1905 Tagore had neighbours do it.
Ask your elders
“Ask your grandmother whether she sent rakhis by post, and to whom. Ask if anyone in the family tied a rakhi on someone who wasn't a relative, and what it changed between them.”
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Raksha Bandhan”
- James G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Rosen, 2002), entry “Raksha Bandhan”
- James Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan
- Satish Chandra, History of Medieval India (reported at second hand)
- Bhagavata Purana 8.18–22