Though Pashupati himself worshipped the eight-armed goddess, yet for the daily rituals, a Brahmin named Durgadas had been appointed. The day after the upheaval in the city, Durgadas heard that Pashupati’s house had been reduced to ashes and leveled to the ground. Then the Brahmin resolved to rescue the idol of the eight-armed goddess from the ashes and install it in his own home. When the Yavanas had finished plundering the city to their satisfaction, Bakhtiyar Khilji forbade any further harassment of the townspeople. Thus, the Bengalis, emboldened at last... They were proceeding along the royal road. Observing this, Durgadas set out in the afternoon towards Pashupati’s residence to rescue the image of Ashtabhuja. Arriving at Pashupati’s house, he went to the area where the temple of the goddess was situated. There he saw that unless the heaps of bricks were removed layer by layer, the idol of the goddess could not be retrieved. Seeing this, Durgadas called for his son.

The bricks, half-melted, were fused together and still retained their heat. Father and son together fetched water from a nearby pond and cooled the heated bricks, and with much effort began searching for the Ashtabhuja among them. When the piles of bricks were shifted, the image of the goddess was discovered within. But at the foot of the idol—what was this? In fear, father and son beheld that a human corpse lay there!

They then lifted the corpse and saw that it was the body of Pashupati. After an exclamation of astonishment, Durgadas said, “However our lord has come to such a state, it is our bounden duty as Brahmins and as those nurtured by him to perform the proper rites. Let us carry our lord’s body to the banks of the Ganges and perform his funeral.”

Saying this, the two of them bore their lord’s body to the banks of the Ganges. There, assigning his son to guard the body, Durgadas went into the city in search of wood and other materials suitable for the funeral rites, and gathering as much fragrant wood and other necessary items as he could, he returned to the riverbank.

Then, with his son’s assistance, Durgadas completed all the preliminary rituals according to the scriptures, constructed a pyre of fragrant wood, and, placing Pashupati’s body upon it, prepared to set it alight.

But suddenly—who had appeared in the cremation ground? The two Brahmins, with astonished eyes, saw a woman approaching: clad in soiled garments, her hair disheveled and matted, her tresses loose and wild, her body pale from the touch of ashes and dust, a madwoman descending into the cremation ground. The woman drew near to the Brahmins. Durgadas asked with a fearful heart, “Who are you?”

The woman replied, “Whom are you performing the last rites for?”

Durgadas said, “For the deceased Dharmadhikari Pashupati.”

The woman asked, “How did Pashupati die?”

Durgadas answered, “This morning, I heard rumors in the city that he had been imprisoned by the Yavanas and, by some