This Is How Different Regions In India Celebrate Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan is a festival that celebrates the bond between siblings. The first thing that comes to mind when we think of the festival is the promise thread, or rakhi, that a sister ties around her brother’s wrist. However, something else we can rarely overlook is the box of sweets that sits on the side, bearing witness to the beautiful bond while adding flavour to the celebrations.

The festival falls on Shravan Purnima, the holy full-moon day that marks the end of the Hindu month of Saawan or Shravan. Since it intersects with the monsoon, seasonal produce, local harvest traditions, and regional calendars, the food served on the occasion varies across India.

Here, we map the regional culinary traditions associated with Raksha Bandhan across India.

Growing up in Rajasthan, the days leading up to Rakhi were often spent relishing ghevar, a delicate, honeycomb-like disc of fried flour soaked in sugar syrup. I usually liked a malai ghevar. If it was plain, it had to be topped with piping-hot sugar syrup. I also find that in states adjoining Rajasthan, including Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, ghevar is always included in the Rakshabandhan fare.

Kheer is another delicacy that my mother would always prepare for her brother on Rakhi. It is first offered to the Gods and then served to the family.

In Maharashtra, Shravan Purnima is also Narali Purnima, a day significant to fishing communities along the Konkan coast. The day involves offering coconuts to the sea and praying for a safe and prosperous fishing season.

Coconut thus makes its way into the kitchens, too.

Narali Bhaat, a sweet coconut rice made with jaggery and spices like cardamom, is one of the signature preparations. How can a festival in Maharashtra ever be complete without Puran Poli, and for good reason? Stuffed with sweetened lentils and jaggery, it is a crispy flatbread associated with Rakhi in Maharashtra.

In Odisha, Shravan Purnima is known as Gamha Purnima and has its own culinary heritage. The festival honours Lord Balabhadra as a deity of agriculture and expresses gratitude to domesticated cattle, such as cows and bullocks, that help till the land. The food traditions on Gamha Purnima reflect Odisha’s agrarian roots.

Special portions of freshly prepared food and sweets are traditionally offered to the decorated cattle as a gesture of respect before families partake in the festive feast.

Pithas, or traditional homemade dumplings, sit at the heart of the repertoire of dishes served on the occasion. Taal pitha, prepared using the pulpy extract of ripe palm fruit (taal), is always served. These sweet, steamed dumplings are traditionally wrapped in banana leaves or palash (butea) tree leaves before cooking. It is also served as bhog, or an offering, to Lord Balarama (Balabhadra). Manda Pitha, also called Gamha Manda, is another dessert associated with Gamha Purnima. These are steamed rice-flour dumplings stuffed with a sweet mixture of freshly grated coconut, jaggery, and aromatic spices like black cardamom and black pepper.

In states across southern India, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, the full moon day of Shravan Purnima is celebrated as Avani Avittam or Upakarnma. The day holds great importance for the Brahmin community, as it is associated with the renewal of the sacred thread, also called Yajurveda Upakarma.

Consequently, it would be misleading to suggest that there is one pan-South Indian Raksha Bandhan menu. Where families do observe Rakhi, sweets and a family meal may accompany the ceremony; elsewhere, the culinary traditions are part of the day’s regional observance. Men take a holy dip in rivers or tanks and replace their old sacred thread (Janeu or Poonool) with a new one to atone for past sins and make a resolve to live righteously.

Dishes like Nei Appam (small, fluffy, sweet fried fritters made from rice flour, jaggery, and cardamom and fried in ghee), Paruppu Poli (a flat, sweet wheat or maida flatbread stuffed with a sweet lentil-jaggery filling (puranam) or fresh coconut and cardamom), and Paal Payasam (a creamy rice-and-milk kheer or a moong dal/coconut milk-based pradaman simmered slowly) are essential offerings of the day.

Despite differences in how the day is celebrated across India, food ties the celebrations together.

Whether that means a slice of ghevar in Rajasthan, Narali Bhaat in coastal Maharashtra, Nei Appam in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, or pithas in Odisha, sweets serve much the same purpose: adding flavour to celebrations.