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36. THE STORY OF SAURIKADATTA
In the city of Nandipura, king Mitra had a cook Srika by name. Many fishermen, hunters and fowlers brought him a variety of fish, animals like goats and cows and a large number of birds like tittira and peacock. Śrika had also kept in several cages birds of different varieties.
When the animals were brought to him in the king's kitchen, he cut them into pieces with knives and prepared delicious food by frying, roasting and baking the flesh of these animals. He seasoned the various preparations in the juice of fruits like plums, grapes, wood apples, pomegranates etc. After he had served the different dishes to the king and the royal family, he himself ate and enjoyed them. This way he lived for thirty three hundred years and after his death, he was sent to the sixth region of hell as a punishment for all the sinful acts he had committed as a royal cook. When his time there was over, he was born in the family of a fisherman Samudradatta . His wife had so far given birth only to still-born babies or babies that died soon after their birth. She and her husband became devout worshippers of a Yaksa called Saurika. Through the favour of this Yaksa a son was born to them and out of their gratitude to the Yaksa they called their boy Saurikadatta.
When his father Samudradatta died, his son became the leader of the fishermen there and like his father he too went about catching fish. He also employed a number of men to catch fish, dry them in the sun, roast and fry them, grill and bake them and sell them in the market. Saurikadatta enjoyed eating fish along with wine. Once however as he was eating fish, a bone stuck in his throat. It caused
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