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In Hindu Literature: Hero

In Kālidāsa's "Hero and Nymph" the manager repeats before the play begins, - "What sounds are these in the air, that like the plaintive bleat of lambs, break in upon my speech? Was it the murmur of the bee or kóil's distant song, or do the nymphs of heaven as they pass above warble their celestial strains?" Urvásí, a nymph of heaven, borne in the chariot of the hero Purúravas, of whom she has become enamoured, hearing him speak, says, - nectar here evidently meaning honey, - "Delightful words! they fall like drops of nectar, Nor wonder nectar from the moon should flow."

In the same drama of the "Hero and the Nymph" is the following invitation given to the king by his attendant, - "The bower of jasmines yonder with its slab of black marble is studded thick with blossoms, and the bees crowd about them in heaps; it invites your majesty to repose."

There is nothing finer in all Kálidása's three dramas than the search of King Purúravas for his bride, Urvásí, who has fled from him in a pet and been changed into a vine. As he searches for her through the forests, strains are heard in the air. "The tree of heaven invites the breeze, And all its countless blossoms glow; They dance upon the gale; the bees With sweets inebriate, murmuring low, Soft music lend, and gushes strong The kóil's deep thick warbling song."

The king, seeking his bride, calls upon the clouds and upon all the creatures he meets in exalted strains. Everything reminds him of his beloved, and finally he asks the bee to tell him where she is. "How beautiful the lotus! - it arrests My path and bids me gaze on it - the bees Murmur amidst its petals - like the lip Of my beloved it glows." "Say, plunderer of the honeyed dew, hast thou Beheld the nymph whose large and languid eye Voluptuous rolls, as if it swam with wine?

And yet methinks 't is idle to inquire; For had he tasted her delicious breath, He now would scorn the lotus. I will hence."

Still pursuing his search the king sings, likening his beloved to the sacred river Ganges: - In Hindu Literature "Be not relentless, dearest, Nor wroth with me forever.