The Jātaka Tales are a genre of Buddhist literature that comprise of some 550 stories about the former lives of the Buddha on his Bodhisattva path. In the vein of the tradition of Aesop or the later Jean de La Fontaine in Europe, most of the jatakas are animal fables with related moral teachings.
Each jataka tale illustrates how the bodhisattva cultivated various virtues and qualities that eventually factored in his achievement of buddhahood. In life after life, the Bodhisattva is portrayed as an exemplary individual who embodies such virtues as wisdom, prudence, compassion, and ascetic detachment.
The Jataka tales emphasize the Hindu-Buddhist doctrine of karma; according to this law of causality, present events can be explained by virtuous and bad deeds of the past. Thus, a bodhisattva becomes the superior being he has produced through his precedent righteous actions.
The myths and legends that comprise the Jataka literature have developed over the centuries. Some of the tales are Buddhist in origin, and some are abstracted from prevalent folklore.
Throughout history, the Jataka tales have played a foremost role in the propagation of Buddhist teachings. They are the focal point of Buddhist sermons, customs, festivals, spiritual art, and religious performances.
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The virtuous retain in their mind the good done to them, whereas the evil they experience drops from their mind, like water from a lotus-petal.
—The Jataka Tales
If you desire to do something pleasing to me, then desist from hunting forever! The poor poor beasts of the forest, being … dull of intellect, are worthy of pity for this very reason.
—The Jataka Tales
A heart bound by affection does not mind imminent peril. Worse than death to such a one is the sorrow which the distress of a friend inflicts.
—The Jataka Tales
Worship consists in fulfilling the design (of the person honored), not in offerings of perfumes, garlands, and the like.
—The Jataka Tales
Related Authors
- Hitopadesha
- Panchatantra
- The Dhammapada Buddhist Anthology of Verses