King Yashodhar of Ujjain was a good ruler who loved his mother. When she insisted on an animal sacrifice for the family deity, the king refused to kill a living being. To honour her without breaking the vow of ahimsa, he agreed to sacrifice a rooster — made of soft flour-dough — in the temple. He thought the substitution was harmless. But the intention to kill, even in form, leaves a karmic imprint. In his next life Yashodhar was born a peacock. Then a wild dog. Then a snake. Then a fish. Then a goat. Then a buffalo. In each life he met violent ends. His mother, who had urged the sacrifice, was reborn beside him in matching forms. Only when both souls finally took birth again as Jain monks — and listened to the same teaching of true ahimsa from a wandering Kevali — did they together break the chain.