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JATAKA

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 280 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JATAKA , the technical name, in Buddhist literature, for a See also:

story of one or other of the previous births of the See also:Buddha. The word is also used for the name of a collection of 547 of such stories included, by a most fortunate conjuncture of circumstances, in the Buddhist See also:canon. This is the most See also:ancient and the most See also:complete collection of folk-See also:lore now extant in any literature in the See also:world. As it was made at latest in the 3rd See also:century B.c., it can be trusted not to give any of that See also:modern or See also:European colouring which renders suspect much of the folk-lore collected by modern travellers. Already in the See also:oldest documents, See also:drawn up by the disciples soon after the Buddha's See also:death, he is identified with certain ancient sages of renown. That a religious teacher should claim to be successor of the prophets of old is not uncommon in the See also:history of religions. But the current belief in See also:metempsychosis led, or enabled, the See also:early Buddhists to make a much wider claim. It was not very See also:long before they gradually identified their See also:master with the See also:hero of each of the popular fables and stories of which they were so fond. The See also:process must have been complete by the See also:middle of the 3rd century B.c.; for we find at that date illustrations of the Jatakas in the bas-reliefs on the railing See also:round the See also:Bharahat tope with the titles of the Jataka stories inscribed above them in the characters of that See also:period.' The hero of each story is made into a Bodhisatta; that is, a being who is destined, after a number of subsequent births, to become a Buddha. This rapid development of the Bodhisatta theory is the distinguishing feature in the early history of See also:Buddhism, and was both cause and effect of the simultaneous growth of the Jataka See also:book. In adopting the folk-lore and fables already current in See also:India, the Buddhists did not See also:change them very much. The stories as preserved to us, are for the most See also:part See also:Indian rather than Buddhist.

The See also:

ethics they inculcate or suggest are See also:milk for babes; very See also:simple in See also:character and referring almost exclusively to matters See also:common to all See also:schools of thought in India, and indeed elsewhere. Kindness, purity, honesty, generosity, worldly See also:wisdom, perseverance, are the usual virtues praised; the higher ethics of the Path are scarcely mentioned. These stories, popular with all, were especially appreciated by that school of Buddhists that laid stress on the Bodhisatta theory—a school that obtained its See also:chief support, and probably had its origin, in the extreme See also:north-See also:west of India and in the See also:highlands of See also:Asia. That school adopted, from the early centuries of our era, the use of See also:Sanskrit, instead of See also:Pali, as the means of See also:literary expression. It is almost impossible, therefore, that they would have carried the canonical Pali book, voluminous as it is, into Central Asia. Shorter collections of the See also:original stories, written in Sanskrit, were in See also:vogue among them. One such collection, the Jataka-See also:mala by Arya Sara (6th century), is still extant. Of the existence of another collection, though the Sanskrit original has not yet been found, we have curious See also:evidence. In the 6th century a book of Sanskrit fables was translated into See also:Pahlavi, that is, old See also:Persian (see BmPAI). In succeeding centuries this See also:work was retranslated into Arabic and See also:Hebrew, thence into Latin and See also:Greek and all the modern See also:languages of See also:Europe. The book bears a See also:close resemblance to the earlier chapters of a See also:late Sanskrit See also:fable book called, from its having five chapters, the Pancha tantra, or See also:Pentateuch. The introduction to the old Jataka book gives the See also:life of the See also:historical Buddha.

That introduction must also have reached See also:

Persia by the same route. For in the 8th century St See also:John of See also:Damascus put the story into Greek under the See also:title of Barlaam and Josaphat. This story became very popular in the West. It was translated into Latin, into seven European languages, and even into Icelandic and the See also:dialect of the Philippine Islands. Its hero, that is the Buddha, was canonized as a See also:Christian See also:saint; and the 27th of See also:November was officially fixed as the date for his See also:adoration as such. The book popularly known in Europe as See also:Aesop's Fables was not written by Aesop. It was put together in the 14th century at See also:Constantinople by a See also:monk named See also:Planudes, and he See also:drew largely for his stories upon those in the Jataka book that had reached Europe along various channels. The fables of See also:Babrius and See also:Phaedrus, written respectively in the 1st century before, and in the 1st century after, the Christian era, also contain Jataka stories known in India in the 4th century B.C. A See also:great See also:deal has been written on this curious question of the See also:migration of fables. But we are still very far from being able to trace the complete history of each story in the Jataka book, or in any one of the later collections. For India itself the See also:record is most incomplete. We have the original Jataka book in See also:text and See also:translation.

The history of the text of the Pancha :antra, about a thousand years later, has been fairly well traced out. But for the intervening centuries scarcely anything has been done. There are illustrations, in the bas-reliefs of the 3rd century B.C., of Jatakas not contained in the Jataka book. Another collection, the Cariyd pitaka, of about the same date, has been edited, but not translated. Other collections both in Pali and Sanskrit are known to be extant in MS,; and a large number of Jataka stories, not included in any formal collection, are mentione , or told in full, in other See also:

works. A complete See also:list of these See also:inscriptions will be found in Rhys Davids's Buddhist India, p. 209. See also:JATS Society (See also:London, 1882); H. See also:Kern, Jataka-mal8, Sanskrit text (See also:Cam-See also:bridge, See also:Mass., 1891), (Eng. trans. by J. S. Speyer, See also:Oxford, 1895); Rhys Davids, Buddhist See also:Birth Stories (with full See also:bibliographical tables) (London, 1880) ; Buddhist India (See also:chap. xi. on the Jataka Book) (London, 1903); E. See also:Kuhn, Barlaam and Joasaph (See also:Munich, 1893); A.

See also:

Cunningham, The Stupa of Bharhut (London, 1879). (T. W. R.

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