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In Hindu Literature: Vishnu

Vishnu has come upon the scene and is the chief of the gods; from him everything emanates; he creates everything, he is everything. Vishnu the preserver, the creative force of nature, has closely associated with him the bee, which also represents the creative force in nature and is the symbol of the sweetness and the pain of love.

Of the thousand names which Vishnu finally acquires madhava, honey born, or a descendant of madhu, honey, is one, while madhuan, destroyer of honey, is another. The great god of gods Vishnu himself is represented at times as a bee lying in the heart of a lotus flower. Vishnu is the god of the sun and the moon, and these also are symbolized by the bee, which, as the dispenser of honey, represents the moon; as the appropriator of honey, the sun.

Honey is supposed to come from the moon, and is very frequently mentioned in connection with it in the old Hindu poems.

When the lotus flower, the symbol of nature, opens, Vishnu the sun-god, the bee at its heart, awakens and goes forth. Light is born, life is born.

The bee thus becomes the symbol of birth upon earth. Hence, and for other reasons, the use of honey at bridals and at the birth of a child.

Thus the bee and its honey in Hindu mythology undoubtedly belong to the sun myths, as is also shown in the stories of the bear.

One of the impersonations of Vishnu is the bear, the madhuan, the destroyer of honey.

Vishnu in his mystical rôle of existing in all things is at times his own destroyer. As the madhuan he leads to the destruction of the honey in the sacred honey forest. The bear despoils the bees, that is, Vishnu the sun, the day, overcomes Vishnu the moon, the night.

But again the angry bees revenge themselves by killing the bear. That is, the bees, representing the moon or night, overcome the sun.

Krishna and Brahma, the principal forms of Vishnu, are also like him madhava, born of honey, and Krishna is often portrayed with an azure bee upon his forehead, azure being the color of the sky, of the pure aerial spaces which the gods inhabit.

Kāma, the Hindu god of love, requires the help of the bees in performing the duties of his delicate and difficult office. In the "Puranas," the later Hindu books, Kāma is represented as a beautiful youth who travels about through the three worlds accompanied by his lovely wife Rati, by the cuckoo, the humming-bee, spring personified, and gentle breezes..

The bow he bears is sometimes made of sugar cane to symbolize the sweetness of love, and it is strung by a chain of bees, symbolizing the pain of love and also the source of sweetness; his arrows are tipped with flowers, the red mango blossom being the favorite, as it is also the favorite of the bees.

The word madhukara means both bee and lover, and also means the moon. "The Puránas distribute the earth into seven concentric circles or rings each forming an annular continent, and being separated from the next in succession by a circumambient ocean. These oceans vary also as to their constituent In Hindu Literature parts; and besides seas of fresh and salt water, we have them of treacle, honey, milk and wine."

The early Hindu world very closely resembled the Golden Age of the Greeks, as is described in a splendid passage in the "Vishnu-Puráńa." "The waters became solid, when he (the mighty Příthu) traversed the ocean: the mountains opened him a path: his banner passed unbroken through the forest: the earth needed not cultivation; and, at a thought, food was prepared: all kine were like the cow of plenty: honey was stored in every flower.".

In the later writings we find that honey has not lost its place in ceremonials, but as of old is used at bridals and is put upon the tongue of the new-born male child.

It is also an important factor in the respectful reception of a guest.

Honey is necessary at ancestral ceremonies, as we learn from the following: - "The flesh of the rhinoceros, Kálaśáka (pot herb, sacred basil), and honey are, also, especial sources of satisfaction to those worshipped at ancestral ceremonies." "In former times, O king of the earth, this song of the Pitris was heard by Ikshwáku, the son of Manu, in the groves of Kalápa. ""Those of our descendants shall follow a righteous path, who shall reverently present us with cakes of Gaya. May he be born in our race, who shall give us, on the thirteenth of Bhadrapada and Mágha, milk, honey and clarified butter: or when he marries a maiden, or liberates a black bull, or performs any domestic ceremony agreeable to rule, accompanied by donations to the Brahmans." The student learning the sacred books is prohibited the use of honey and flesh and to eat of these necessitates a penance.

One of the rights of the king is to collect as taxes from his subjects a sixth part of the honey they gather.

And whosoever steals honey shall pay three times its value.

The souls of men upon death transmigrate into the bodies of animals and very frequently into bees - if the men were wise and good enough to deserve such an honor.

We learn that upon his death, "One who has stolen honey becomes a gadfly."

A householder in passing honey must turn his right side towards it, the same as when passing a deity.

The householder must not eat all of the food set before him, "Unless it consist of sour milk, or honey, or clarified butter, or milk, or ground barley, or meat, or sweetmeats," these evidently being considered the necessaries of life. By giving clarified butter, honey or oil, the pious man becomes exempt from disease.

While he who would be beautiful may become so by help of honey. "He who feeds on the Revatî day of every month three Brahmanas with rice boiled in milk with sugar and mixed with honey and clarified butter, in order to please the goddess Revatî, obtains beauty." It is a very different form of religion, as we see, that the bees are called upon to witness in these later days. The stately march of the clouds and the heavenly phenomena which form the imagery of the "Vedas," are replaced by earthly images. In the "Institutes of Vishnu" we read the following description of the goddess of the Earth: "Her eyes were similar to the leaves of the blue lotus (of which the bow of Kâma, the god of love, is made); her face was radiant like the moon in the autumn season; In Hindu Literature her locks were as dark as a swarm of black bees; she was radiant; her lip was red like the Bandhugîva flower; and she was lovely to behold."

A new literature in time sprang into being, but the charm of its nature pictures was still enhanced by the never-failing presence of the bees.

Kālidāsa, the greatest Hindu dramatist, in the sixth century, brought forth his delightful creations and sang the bee into innumerable and immortal love poems.

Kālidāsa's most popular drama, “Sākuntalā, or the Lost Ring," would lose at least a part of its charm if deprived of the music of the bees.

At the very opening, before the play begins, as was the custom, a singer delighted the audience with a song. "Fond maids, the chosen of their hearts to please, Intwine their ears with sweet Sirísha flowers, Whose fragrant lips attract the kiss of bees That softly murmur through the summer hours."

One could almost follow the course of the story by the stanzas in which bees are mentioned.