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him to an officer living in Nandāpāțaka. He grows up, living on worms, suffering from thirst, cold, and heat. In time, the officer presents him to king Guņadhara, Surendradatta's own son. In the meanwhile his mother Yaçodharā, who has also died, of diarrhoea, is reborn as a fleet dog in the village of Dhāngapūraka. This dog is also presented to Gunadhara, who conceives affection for both dog and peacock. One day the peacock climbs to the turret of the palace, and sees there his former wife Nayanăvali in amorous intercourse with the hunchback. Remembering his former birth, he angrily pecks at her with claws and bill. She takes up an iron hammer belonging to the hunchback, and hits the peacock on the head, so that he rolls down stairs where the king is amusing himself by gambling. The king cries out, 'catch him, catch him!' The dog (Surendradatta's former mother) seizes the peacock by the throat. Somebody hits the dog on the head, who, spitting blood, lets go; both animals fall to the ground, nearly dead. Surendradatta, in his death throes, reflects on the dire karma which has consigned him to the life of a worm-eater, and to die eaten by a dog. Thus both animals perish.
Similarly, Surendradatta and Yacodharā pass thru other animal existences, full of suffering and degradation. First, as antelope and serpent, in which the antelope catches the serpent by the tail, and the serpent bites the antelope in the foot. Next, as rohita fish and crocodile, in which the crocodile is killed in the act of swallowing the fish; the fish is caught and eaten by Gunasena and Nayanávali, his former son and faithless wife. In the last animal existence they are reborn in the womb of a hen. At the moment of their birth a cat eats the mother; the two eggs fall upon an ash-heap, are covered up by a female sweep (tyajantī), and are hatched out as a cock and hen of fine plumage. They come into the possession of an officer, who presents them to Guņadhara for his sport. The king goes to a pleasure grove, where he is attended by the officer with the two cocks. There the officer meets a Sage, listens to his sermon, but refuses to renounce the slaughter of animals. The Sage reproves him, assuring him that, unless he does so, he will endure the same fate as did this pair of cocks who had in a former birth 'killed ' a cock made of dough (piştakurkuța). As he summarizes the story of their tragic rebirths, the cocks are enlightened and give forth a joyous crowing. King Guņadhara, sporting with
