Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.144

c5.144

HUNTING. Hunting was by no means an unimportant occupation in those days. Flesh-eating was a very common practice as we shall see later on.¹ Venison was highly esteemed. Not to speak of the king going on a hunting merely to experience the delicacies and pleasure of eating venison ‘broiled on charcoal;’² it is important to note that there were regular hunters—the luddakas and the nisādas, whose sole occupation was to capture or kill the animals and earn their living by selling them.³ Not only that, there were special villages of these hunters, as we have already seen.⁴