232 The Honey-Makers 



One of the impersonations of Vishnu is the bear, the 

 madhuan, the destroyer of honey. 



Vishnu in his mystical role 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 hke 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. 



Kama, 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, Kama 

 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 madhiikara means both bee and lover, and 

 also means the moon. 



" The Puranas distribute the earth into seven concentric 

 circles or rings each forming an annular continent, and be- 

 ing separated from the next in succession by a circumam- 

 bient ocean. These oceans vary also as to their constituent 



