Jataka

(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.

(jä'tə-kə)
n.
Any of a genre of Buddhist texts containing stories about a former birth of Gautama Buddha.

[Sanskrit Jātakam, from neut. of jātaka-, engendered (by), born (under), from jāta-, past participle of janate, he is born.]

[Ge]

Buddhist stories of Indian origin included in the sacred literature but in fact entertaining tales of supernatural adventures.

(Pāli). A genre of early literature describing the former lives of Gautama Buddha, and title of the tenth book of the Khuddaka Nikāya of the Sūtra Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon. Since Jātaka legends occur in the canon these must have been always recognized in Buddhist literature and constitute an old and widespread tradition, as shown by the fact that Jātaka scenes are found depicted in early sculptures. The Pāli Jātaka contains 550 birth-stories arranged in 22 books. Each story opens with a preface which relates the particular circumstances in the Buddha's life which led him to tell the birth-story, while at the end there is always a short summary where the Buddha identifies the different actors in the story in their present birth. In addition, every story is illustrated by one or more verses. According to the tradition of Sri Lanka, the original Jātaka book consisted only of these verses and a commentary on these containing the stories which they were intended to illustrate was written in very early times in Sinhalese. This was translated into Pāli about 430 ce by Buddhaghoṣa as the Jātaka-aṭṭhakathā, and after this the original was lost. It is not known when the Jātakas were put together in a systematic form, but it is assumed that they were first handed down orally. In India, the recollection of previous lives is a common feature in the histories of the saints and heroes of a sacred tradition, and it is considered a result of a pious life of self-mortification. The Jātakas are interesting as examples of Buddhist literature, and especially as a portrait of the social life and customs of ancient India.