Bhramargit

(“songs to the bee”) Poetic genre in the
devotional poetry of the god Krishna,
which is set in the time after Krishna has
gone to claim his kingdom in Mathura,
never to return. The story tells how
Krishna sends his companion Uddhava
back to Braj with a message for the
gopis, the cowherd women who are
Krishna’s dear companions, and who are
virtually insane with longing because of
his absence. Uddhava tries to reassure
the gopis by telling them not to dwell on
Krishna’s physical absence. Uddhava
further reminds them that since Krishna
is the all-pervading divinity, he will
always be with them even though he
might not be visible. In the bhramargit
poems, the gopis scornfully reject
Uddhava’s notions, asserting that this
view of Krishna is abstract, lifeless, and
suitable only for those who have never
known Krishna in his embodied form.
The genre’s name comes from this
story’s earliest appearance, in the
Bhagavata Purana. Here the gopis
address their complaints about
Krishna’s absence to a large black bee,
which in their passion and loneliness
they mistake for Krishna.