This year, the festival of Raksha Bandhan is being held on August 22 to celebrate the unique bond of affection and mutuality of trust between brothers and sisters. Tying of the Rakhi by sisters, symbolizes love, affection and mutual trust between brothers and sisters.
Raksha Bandhan is a Hindu annual festival on which sisters tie an amulet, thread or rakhi around the wrists of their brothers for being dutiful in providing sisters the protection, affection, social support and care. It is said that affection is tender a feeling of care, sincerity and selfless fondness towards another person.
Title: It's Raksha Bandhan, but Mandana Art Goes Missing in Rajasthan [1]
Earlier, the ‘Mandana’ wall paintings done on mud walls on various festive occasions were a common sight. But over the last fifty years the mandana as symbolic visual art of festive and religious occasions has almost disappeared, more so on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. It used to be the part of Indian culture, more so in Rajasthan in the early nineties.
The mandana paintings were mainly done by women and the skill is passed on from the older to the younger generation. Often, clay mixed with dung is plastered on the wall and lime or chalk powder is used for painting the theme or the motif of the occasion. Before doing a mandana painting, the portion of the wall plastered with mud and cow dung mixture is painted red or brown with ‘geru’ as background and white colour chalk is used for the drawings.
Earlier, the common design of mandana painting done on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan in Rural Rjasthan was revisited as shown in the inset picture to serve the purpose of posterity for this art of Rajasthan bone to celebrate Rakhi festival.
However, Mandana art designs done on Diwali and Navratri have been commercialized through mandana stickers and pictures or calendars.
Link for access to earlier article:
[1] http://u4uvoice.com/raksha-bandhan-mandana-art-disappears/
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