Critical Appreciation of ‘Raksha Bandhan’ – P. Seshadri

Introduction

P. Seshadri’s Raksha Bandhan is a beautiful sonnet on devotion, love and care of a woman. The poet has taken the festival Raksha Bandhan just as an example of that and she excels in every relationship in terms of care, love and devotion. The poet has also tried to defend the age-old customs of the nation such as the festival of rakhi which is criticized by a few and termed as useless.

Central Idea

The poem is centralised on the festival of Raksha Bandhan, it falls on an auspicious day of the month Sravan. The festival is significant for both brothers and sisters. It is such an important day as per an old custom that brothers ensure their presence for at least this day per year in front of their sisters. Using the background of Raksha Bandhan, the poetess expresses his real purpose of writing this poem is to show the significance of woman in human relationships. A woman has unmatching capacity for devotion, love and care. She plays multifarious roles in the form a mother, sister or in general as a woman to shower her love and care for the people dear to her.

Themes

1. Defence of the age-old customs – The poem explains that this sacred day of Raksha Bandhan comes in the month of Sravan when monsoon rains are common. On this festival a sacred thread is tied on the wrist of a brother by her sister. It is an ancient festival which is still religiously celebrated by brothers and sisters. Brothers ensure their presence in front of their sisters on this day. The poet defends this festival from the criticism or critical eye of a few people who consider it useless.
2. Devotion, care and love of woman – In the background of festival Raksha Bandhan, the poet focuses on devotion care and love of a woman. He rhetorically claims that no one in this world would flout the norms of this festival as there is none can beat a woman in terms of devotion and love and a sister in terms of care through her pure wishes.

Literary Devices

1. Alliteration – There is repetition of consonant sounds /t/ and /f/ at the starting of words ‘tassel tipped’ and ‘flout this festival’. Hence, it’s an example of alliteration.
2. Personification – There is personification in the phrase ‘lands are bathed’ as lands are treated like a person taking bath.
3. Rhetorical question – These lines are classic example of Rhetorical Question – Who will be rashly bold / And flout this festival as void of worth —An ancient mummery — to which man shows / His slavish piety? Here, the poetess is not asking about the person who would consider this festival worthless but she is claiming that no one in this world consider this festival and ancient useless ritual.
4. Anaphora – There is repetition of ‘Of’ at the starting of Twelve and thirteenth lines of the poem continuously. Hence, such repetition at the starting of lines is called Anaphora.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet. It is divided into octave and sestet. The rhyme scheme of octave is abbaabba but sestet has slightly different rhyme scheme as it rhymes cddeec.

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