It is sometimes called as kalava, mauli, moui, raksasutra,[1] pratisara (in North India), kaapu, kayiru or charandu (in South India).[2][3][4] A kautuka is a woven thread, cord or ribbon, states the Indologist Jan Gonda, which is traditionally believed to be protective or apotropaeic.[3] The pratisara and kautuka in a ritual thread context appear in the Vedic text Atharvaveda Samhita section 2.11.[3] An even earlier reference to ritual "red and black" colored thread with a dual function, one of driving away "fiends" and the other "binding of bonds" between the bride and the groom by one's relatives appears in hymn 10.85.28 of the Rigveda, states Gonda.[3][5]