Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial or village exogamy, in which a bride

marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents, by custom, do not visit her in her married home. [10] In rural north India, where
village exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents' homes every year for the
ceremony.[11][12] Their brothers, who typically live with the parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters' married home to escort
them back. Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. [13] The brothers
serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters' married and parental homes, [14] as well as potential stewards of their security.
In urban India, where families are increasingly nuclear, the festival has become more symbolic, but continues to be highly popular. The
rituals associated with this festival have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and
migration,[15] the movies,[16] social interaction,[17] and promotion by politicized Hinduism,[18][19] as well as by the nation state.[20]
Among women and men who are not blood relatives, there is also a transformed tradition of voluntary kin relations, achieved through
the tying of rakhi amulets, which have cut across caste and class lines, [21] and Hindu and Muslim divisions.[22] In some communities or
contexts, other figures, such as a matriarch, or a person in authority, can be included in the ceremony in ritual acknowledgement of their
benefaction.[23]