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In Hindu Literature

THE Latin writer Varro fancifully calls the bees the Birds of the Muses, thus paying a poet's tribute to the airy creatures that wing their way through the songs of many nations; and nowhere is the title better deserved than in India, where from the earliest times the bees have been the winged darlings of the muses.

Figuring largely in the religion as well as the poetry of the Hindus and constantly appearing in the accounts of the gods the bee is a delightful and omnipresent feature in Hindu literature.

The "Vedas," the oldest literature of India, concerning themselves with the great forces of nature, and drawing their imagery mainly from the phenomena of the sky, are full of allusions to honey and the bee, which play their parts in the stately drama of men and gods.

The word madhu, honey, and other words compounded with it constantly occur.

Honey, in the "Vedas," is intimately connected with the symbolism of the sun and the moon, but particularly of the moon.

The two Aświns,¹ children of the sun and moon, spirits of the dawn, giving birth to the new day, demigods who concerned themselves with the welfare of man and gave him good gifts, bore honey in their three-wheeled chariot. In the old Hindu belief honey gave strength, wealth, good-fortune, knowledge, and offspring to man.

In the "Rig-Veda," the fine invocations to the Aswins contain frequent references to the honey they bear, as is shown by the following: - "Aświns, men who desire to glorify you with their hymns, cause, as it were, their praises to be heard, propitiating you with oblations; for, from you who are possessed of all opulence, they obtain every kind of wealth and abundant food. Dasras, the fellies of the wheels of your honey-laden car drop honey, carried in your golden car." "When, Aświns, you harness your bounty-shedding chariot, refresh our strength with trickling honey: bestow abundant food upon our people: may we acquire riches in the strife of heroes." "May the three-wheeled cart of the Aswins, drawn by swift horses, laden with honey, three-canopied, filled with treasure, and every way auspicious, come to our presence, and bring prosperity to our people and our cattle." "Bring us, Aświns, vigour: animate us with your honied speech: prolong our existence; wipe away our sins; destroy our foes; be ever our associates." "With those aids by which you defended Krisánu in battle, with which you succored the horse of the young Purukutsa in speed, and by which you deliver the pleasant honey to the bees; with them, Aświns, come willingly hither." 1 Quotations from Hindu literature having been taken from various translators, the accents used are those of the translators quoted. 2 Another name for Aświns.

In Hindu Literature Honey-colored, or resembling honey in purity and pellucidity, is a comparison more than once met with in the "Vedas," as in one of the hymns to the Maruts, the stormgods or winds. "When, Maruts, flying like birds along a certain path of the sky, you collect the moving, passing clouds in the nearest portions of the firmament, then, coming into collision with your cars, they pour forth the waters; therefore, do you shower upon your worshipper the honey-colored rain." Honey played an important part in the religious observances of our Aryan forefathers, as we learn from the "Vedas" and from the "Sûtras," or rituals for domestic ceremonies. Replete with poetry is that part of the marriage ceremony where the husband reciting the Vedic verse "Full of honey the herbs," ties to the body of his bride the madhûka flowers.