Jataka Tales are an important part of Indian folk literature and comprise stories about the previous lives of the Buddha, in both human and animal forms. The stories impart essential moral values and teach important lessons to children. This book is an ideal gift for children as it encourages a positive and responsible outlook towards life.
Jataka Tales are a part of Indian literature that contain stories from the life of the Buddha in the human and animal forms. The stories in this collection are written in simple language that children would be able to grasp easily. Each tale teaches an important lesson. These books form a perfect window to the Indian tradition of story-telling for kids.
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Gautama was born a prince, over 2500 years ago in Lumbini, in the northern part of India. He left the comfortable life of the palace, his young wife and infant son, to go in search of true knowledge. After a life of wander, austerities and meditation, he
This is the extended and annotated edition including * an extensive annotation of more than 10.000 words about the history and basics of Buddhism, written by Thomas William Rhys Davids * an interactive table-of-contents * perfect formatting for electronic reading devices The Jātakas refer to a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births (jāti) of the Buddha. These are the stories that tell about the previous lives of the Buddha, in both human and animal form. The future Buddha may appear in them as a king, an outcast, a god, an elephant—but, in whatever form, he exhibits some virtue that the tale thereby inculcates. The Theravada Jatakas comprise 547 poems, arranged roughly by increasing number of verses. This book comprises poem 1 through 150. (courtesy of wikipedia.com)
This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that Jātaka scenes are found sculptured in the carvings on the railings round the relic shrines of Sanchi and Amaravati and especially those of Bharhut, where the titles of several Jātakas are clearly inscribed over some of the carvings. These bas-reliefs prove that the birth-legends were widely known in the third century B.C. and were then considered as part of the sacred history of the religion. Fah-hian, when he visited Ceylon, (400 A.D.), saw at Abhayagiri "representations of the 500 bodily forms which the Bodhisatta assumed during his successive births1," and he particularly mentions his births as Sou-to-nou, a bright flash of light, the king of the elephants, and an antelope. These legends were also continually introduced into the religious discourses which were delivered by the various teachers in the course of their wanderings, whether to magnify the glory of the Buddha or to illustrate Buddhist doctrines and precepts by appropriate examples, somewhat in the same way as mediæval preachers in Europe used to enliven their sermons by introducing fables and popular tales to rouse the flagging attention of their hearers. It is quite uncertain when these various birth-stories were put together in a systematic form such as we find in our present Jātaka collection. At first they were probably handed down orally, but their growing popularity would ensure that their kernel, at any rate, would ere long be committed to some more permanent form. In fact there is a singular parallel to this in the 'Gesta Romanorum', which was compiled by an uncertain author in the 14th century and contains nearly 200 fables and stories told to illustrate various virtues and vices, many of them winding up with a religious application. Some of the birth-stories are evidently Buddhistic and entirely depend for their point on some custom or idea peculiar to Buddhism; but many are pieces of folk-lore which have floated about the world for ages as the stray waifs of literature and are liable everywhere to be appropriated by any casual claimant. The same stories may thus, in the course of their long wanderings, come to be recognised under widely different aspects, as when they are used by Boccaccio or Poggio merely as merry tales, or by some Welsh bard to embellish king Arthur's legendary glories, or by some Buddhist samaṇa or mediæval friar to add point to his discourse. Chaucer unwittingly puts a Jātaka story into the mouth of his Pardonere when he tells his tale of 'the ryotoures three'; and another appears in Herodotus as the popular explanation of the sudden rise of the Alcmæonidæ through Megacles' marriage with Cleisthenes' daughter and the rejection of his rival Hippocleides.
Jataka Tales are a part of Indian literature that contain stories from the life of the Buddha in the human and animal forms. The stories in this collection are written in simple language that children would be able to grasp easily. Each tale teaches an important lesson. These books form a perfect window to the Indian tradition of story-telling for kids.
