(South and Central Asian mythology)

The ‘birth-stories’—of which there are 547—are tales told by the Buddha of his previous births as bird, animal, man. A number of the stories are pre-Buddhist in origin and are found in such Indian collections as the Panchatantra, others have a provenance outside South and Central Asia. They were remembered and recorded by the followers of the Buddha not long after he passed into nirvana. To a Buddhist they are of autobiographical and moral interest, since the characteristics or situation of those concerned are supposed to be at least partly explainable in terms of their conduct in previous existences as told in the Jataka.

Throughout the tales the thread of rebirth which ended in the Buddha's own life and mission is celebrated and analysed. Virtues and vices are treated equally. The story of the pariah dog is not untypical. It explains that the Buddha once took the form of a homeless dog and lived on refuse in a cemetery. Owing to his character he became leader of all the stray dogs and was called upon to defend them against the king's wrath. The harness used for the royal chariot had been left lying in the palace courtyard and overnight rain making the leather parts soft and sodden, the king's own pack of hounds tore it to pieces and devoured it. Informed by the palace attendants that the guilt lay with stray dogs entering the courtyard through the sewers, the king ordered an extermination drive in the city. The Buddha-dog calmed his agitated followers and set out for the palace. By the simple expedient of calling upon the truth, the faultless pariah dog was able to reach the throne room unmolested. There, he persuaded the king to feed the royal pack with grass and butter-milk, whereupon the dogs vomited the pieces of leather and established proof of his followers' innocence. Impressed and delighted by this wisdom, the king ordered that the pariah dog should share his own food. He also granted the request that lives of all living things should be spared. Buddha was the chief dog; Ananda, his chief disciple, the king.

A Dictionary of World Mythology. Copyright © Arthur Cotterell 1979, 1986, 2003. All rights reserved.