est of the temple told us that
Aurangzeb and his soldiers knocked off the heads, arms, and noses of
all the idols, saying that 'if they had really any of the godhead in
them, they would assuredly now show it, and save themselves'. But
when they came to the door of Gauri Sankar's apartments, they were
attacked by a nest of hornets, that put the whole of the emperor's
army to the rout; and his imperial majesty called out: 'Here we have
really something like a god, and we shall not suffer him to be
molested; if all your gods could give us proof like this of their
divinity, not a nose of them would ever be touched'.

The popular belief, however, is that after Aurangzeb's army had
struck off all the prominent features of the other gods, one of the
soldiers entered the temple, and struck off the ear of one of the
prostrate images underneath their vehicle, the Bull. 'My dear', said
Gauri, 'do you see what these saucy men are about?' Her consort
turned round his head;[6] and, seeing the soldiers around him,
brought all the hornets up from the marble rocks below, where there
are still so many nests of them, and the whole army fled before them
to Teori, five miles.[7] It is very likely that some body of troops
by whom the rest of the images had been mutilated, may have been
driven off by a nest of hornets from within the temple where this
statue stands. I have seen six companies of infantry, with a train of
artillery and a squadron of horse, all put to the rout by a single
nest of hornets, and driven off some miles with all their horses and
bullocks. The officers generally save themselves by keeping within
their tents, and creeping under their bed-clothes, or their carpets;
and servants often escape by covering themselves up in their
blankets, and lying perfectly still. Horses are often stung to a
state of madness, in which they throw themselves over precipices and
break their limbs, or kill themselves. The grooms, in trying to save
their horses, are generally the people who suffer most in a camp
attacked by such an enemy. I have seen some so stung as to recover
with difficulty; and I believe there have been instances of people
not recovering at all. In such a frightful scene I have seen a
bullock sitting and chewing the cud as calmly as if the whole thing
had been got up for his amusement. The hornets seldom touch any
animal that remains perfectly still.

On the bank of the Bina river at Eran, in the Sagar district, is a
beau