Madhu (Hindustani: ??? or ????) is a word used in several Indo-Aryan languages meaning honey or sweet. It also means mead and is used for alcohol. The word originates in Sanskrit and has cognates in most Indo-European languages.
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Alcohol and mead
Madhu, and the related terms mad (??, ??) and madira (?????, ?????), also mean alcohol. These words are all derived from the Sanskrit language, and are Indo-European cognates of the English mead, Greek ????, Avestan madu, Persian may, Latvian and Lithuanian medus, German Met and Old Church Slavonic ???? (med?).
In this sense, these terms are also used for additional words related to alcohol. For instance, madhushala is a Hindi word for an establishment that serves alcohol, as is madiralaya (lit. abode of alcohol, c.f. himalaya, abode of snow). Madmast (??????, ?????) means intoxicated due to alcohol, and is a word frequently used in poetry and song in the region, sometimes as a stylized reference to being in an emotional state resembling intoxication for other reasons, such as romantic love.
Metaphorical use
Madhu has been used for millennia in a similar metaphorical sense as wine is in English, e.g. "the wine of truth," and employed in that manner in Hindu religious literature. For example, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, believed to have been composed in the first millennium BCE, contains a chapter called the Madhu Brahmana and "the secret essence of the Vedas themselves, was called the madhu-vidya or honey doctrine."[6]
Scholars date this metaphorical usage of madhu to a time very close to the initial composition of the Vedas. Soma, the shared sacred drink of the Indo-Iranians (known as Haoma in Avestan), is often metaphorically referred to as Madhu in the Vedas. However, "the Avesta, which is quite close to the Veda with regard to the terminology of Soma, does not know the equation Soma = madhu."[7]
Usage in names
The derivative form Madhur (????, ?????) is used as a Hindu first-name for males and Madhu is a first-name common among males, although both names can occur for either gender. Madhuri is a common feminine variant of Madhur.[8] The word madhur is a combination of madhu (honey/sweet) and -r/-ra (like or similar). Several other names are based on the root madhu, such as Madhukar, Madhusudhan, Madhulika and Madhubala.[9]
See also
- Kvasir, a wise being in Norse mythology born from the spit of the gods and from whose blood the Mead of Poetry is crafted
