PLATE SEVEN
“The followers and servants of the dacoit chief bound Jaḍa Bhārata with ropes and brought him to the temple of the goddess Kālī. All the thieves, according to their imaginative ritual for killing animalistic men, bathed, dressed and decorated Jaḍa Bhārata with ornaments befitting an animal. Then they brought him before the goddess Kālī, and began worshiping the deity with various offerings before killing the man-animal. At this time, one of the thieves, acting as the chief priest, was ready to offer the blood of Jaḍa Bharata, whom they imagined to be an animal-man, to the goddess Kālī to drink as a liquor. He therefore took up a very fearsome sword, which was very sharp and, consecrating it by the  mantra  of Bhadra Kālī, raised it to kill Jaḍa Bharata. The goddess Kālī could immediately understand that these sinful dacoits were about to kill a great devotee of the Lord, and she could not bear this. Suddenly the deity’s body burst asunder, and the goddess Kālī personally emerged from it in a body burning with an intense and intolerable effulgence. Intolerant of the offenses committed, the infuriated goddess Kālī flashed her eyes and displayed her fierce and curved teeth. Her reddish eyes glowed, and she displayed her fearsome features. She assumed a frightening body, as if she were prepared to destroy the entire creation. Leaping violently from the altar, she immediately decapitated all the rogues and thieves with the very sword with which they had intended to kill Jaḍa Bharata. She then began to drink the hot blood that flowed from the necks of the beheaded rogues and thieves as if this blood were liquor. Indeed, she drank this intoxicant with her associates who were witches and female demons. Becoming intoxicated with this blood, they all began to sing very loudly and dance as though prepared to annihilate the entire universe. At the same time, they began to play with the heads of the rogues and thieves, tossing them about as if they were balls.” ( pp.322–329 )