244 The Honey-Makers 



The Lover s Song to his Beloved 



" Come, love, thou puttest the night to shame. The 

 beauty of the moon is eclipsed by the loveliness of thy 

 countenance, and the lotus sinks humbled into shade ; 

 the sweet songs of thy attendant damsels discredit the 

 murmur of the bees, and, mortified, they hasten to hide 

 their disgrace within the flowery blossom." 



In the prose romances written by Bana in the seventh 

 century we find the wildest extravagance of speech, which 

 is far less pleasing to Western readers than the rich, sensu- 

 ous, but saner work of the poet Bhavabhiiti and of the early 

 writers. Still, there are some beautiful passages and the 

 bees continue as omnipresent as ever, as witness the first 

 part of the following, taken from the description of a 

 sunset in the " Harsa-Carita " : — 



" Fragrant with the scent of their own honey, the night- 

 lotus beds, to the joy of the bees, commenced to open, like 

 umbrellas of water nymphs, seraglio mansions for the wives 

 of the feathered tribes." 



The bees have " sung their sweet songs " often enough 

 in the quotations already given to establish their rights as 

 vocal musicians, but Bana is not content to let them sing, 

 they must also play upon the lyre, and we are told in the 

 " Harsa-Carita " of a certain king that — 



" He was listening like one skilled in music to lute- 

 players, to the tribes of bees in his ear-rings, which with 

 restless feet played a tiny lyre consisting of the end of his 

 ear-ring jewel with the web of its rosy rays for strings." 



Bana tells us of a king from whose "ear-wreath, as 

 he bent down, bees flew away Hke departing sins all 

 uprooted by Siva worship." 



And thus of a queen : — 



"She was honey in converse, ambrosia to those who 



