The Jataka Tales

01A bridge of his own body

In the Mahakapi Jataka the Bodhisatta is king of eighty thousand monkeys living in a mango tree on the Ganga. The King of Banaras surrounds the tree with archers. The monkey king leaps the river, ties a creeper to his feet, leaps back, and holds the far branch with his hands, so that his troop crosses over his back. One jealous monkey jumps down hard on him and breaks his heart. The king of men, watching, has him brought down gently and hears his last words on how a ruler must care for those in his charge. At Bharhut, about 2,100 years ago, a sculptor carved this scene on a railing medallion.

02Verse and prose

Only the verses of the Jatakas belong to the canon, in the Khuddaka Nikaya. The prose that carries each katha comes from the Jatakatthavannana, the commentary written down in Lanka around the 5th century CE. Each tale has a frame: something happens among the monks at Jetavana, the Buddha tells a katha of long ago, and at the end he names who was who. “At that time the monkey king was I.” The past-life katha is called the atitavatthu, the present-day occasion the paccuppannavatthu, and the closing identification the samodhana.

03The vow at Dipankara’s feet

The collection opens with the Nidanakatha, the Buddha’s life told in three spans. The far span begins countless ages ago with the ascetic Sumedha, who lay down in the mud so that Dipankara Buddha and his monks could walk over him dry-footed, and vowed to become a Buddha himself. Dipankara foretold that he would. The middle span runs from the last birth as Vessantara and the stay in the Tusita heaven to the awakening at Bodh Gaya. The near span carries the story to the gift of the Jetavana by Anathapindika at Shravasti.

04547 births, ten perfections

Across 547 births the Bodhisatta is a king, a merchant, a brahmana, an outcaste, a hare, a deer, an elephant, a tree spirit, sometimes a thief who learns better. The thread through all of them is the ten paramitas, the perfections a Buddha must complete: giving, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolve, loving-kindness and equanimity. The last ten Jatakas, the Mahanipata, give one great birth to each perfection, and Theravada Buddhists know them as the Dasa Jataka, often painted in sequence on vihara walls.

05The hare in the moon

In the Sasa Jataka the Bodhisatta is a hare living in a forest with three friends, a monkey, a jackal and an otter. On an uposatha day they resolve to give alms. The otter brings seven red fish, the jackal two roasted lizards and a pot of curd, the monkey ripe mangoes. The hare has only grass. When Sakka comes in the form of a hungry brahmana, the hare asks him to light a fire and leaps into it to feed him with his own body. The fire does not even warm him. Sakka draws the hare’s shape on the moon so that the gift is remembered for the whole kalpa.

06On stone and on walls

The carvers of Bharhut labelled their panels with the jataka’s name in Brahmi, which is how we know these kathas were told in the 2nd century BCE. Sanchi’s northern gateway carries the Vessantara Jataka along its architrave, the prince giving away his white elephant, his chariot, his children. At Ajanta the painters of Cave 1 spread the Mahajanaka across a wall, and Cave 17 holds the Vessantara again among a dozen others. Further east, Borobudur in Java has hundreds of jataka reliefs along its galleries.

07Vessantara, recited through the night

The last and longest Jataka tells of Prince Vessantara, who gave away everything asked of him, even his wife and children, and so completed the perfection of giving. In Thailand and Laos it is recited each year in its thirteen chapters at the festival called Thet Mahachat or Bun Phawet, often through a whole night and day, and villagers bring offerings for each chapter. In Sri Lanka its scenes are painted in old viharas and staged as folk drama. Listeners weep at the children’s parting, then rejoice when the family is restored.

08Editions and translations

Viggo Fausböll edited the Pali Jataka with its commentary in six volumes from Copenhagen and London between 1877 and 1896. A team under E. B. Cowell at Cambridge translated all 547 into English (1895–1907). Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan’s six-volume Hindi translation from the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan brought them to Hindi readers. Many Jataka kathas share their plots with tales told across Bharat in other collections, and children who have never heard the word jataka know the hare, the monkey bridge and the tortoise who could not keep his mouth shut.

What it contains

1. 1
   Nidanakatha निदानकथा

   The introduction: the Buddha’s life in three spans, far, middle and near. It runs from the vow of Sumedha before Dipankara Buddha to the gift of the Jetavana.

2. 2
   Ekanipata (1–150) एककनिपात

   150 tales, each with a single verse, in fifteen vaggas. It opens with the Apannaka Jataka, on choosing the sure path over the doubtful, and includes many of the best-known animal kathas.

3. 3
   Dukanipata (151–250) दुकनिपात

   100 tales of two verses each. It opens with the Rajovada Jataka, where two kings’ charioteers meet on a narrow road and argue whose master is the better ruler.

4. 4
   Tika and Catukka Nipatas (251–350)

   Fifty tales of three verses and fifty of four. The Catukkanipata includes the Sasa Jataka of the hare in the moon (316).

5. 5
   Pancaka to Dasaka Nipatas (351–454)

   Tales of five to ten verses. The Sattakanipata holds the Mahakapi Jataka (407), the monkey king who made a bridge of his body.

6. 6
   Ekadasa to Pakinnaka Nipatas (455–496)

   Tales of eleven, twelve and thirteen verses, and a miscellany. The Matuposaka Jataka of the elephant who cared for his blind mother opens the Ekadasakanipata.

7. 7
   Visati to Asiti Nipatas (497–537)

   Longer tales with twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy and eighty verses. They include the Matanga, Kusa and Mahasutasoma Jatakas.

8. 8
   Mahanipata (538–546) महानिपात

   Nine of the ten great births: Temiya, Mahajanaka, Suvannasama, Nimi, Mahosadha, Bhuridatta, Candakumara, Narada and Vidhura. Each perfects one paramita, such as Temiya’s renunciation and Mahajanaka’s energy.

9. 9
   Vessantara Jataka (547) वेस्सन्तरजातक

   The last and longest Jataka, the Bodhisatta’s final human birth before Siddhartha. Prince Vessantara completes the perfection of giving, and the tale is recited across the Theravada world in thirteen chapters.

Famous verses

अपण्णकं ठानमेके, दुतियं आहु तक्किका; एतदञ्ञाय मेधावी, तं गण्हे यदपण्णकं॥

Some speak of the sure ground; the reasoners speak of a second. Knowing this, the wise man should take what is sure.Jataka 1 (Apannaka Jataka)

न ससस्स तिला अत्थि, न मुग्गा नपि तण्डुला; इमिना अग्गिना पक्कं, ममं भुत्वा वने वसा॥

The hare has no sesame, no beans, no rice. Eat me, cooked in this fire, and dwell in the forest.Jataka 316 (Sasa Jataka), verse 4

एसा ते उपमा राज, तं सुणोहि अरिन्दम; रञ्ञा रट्ठस्स योग्गस्स, बलस्स निगमस्स च; सब्बेसं सुखमेट्ठब्बं, खत्तियेन पजानता॥

Here is a likeness for you, O king; hear it, tamer of foes. A wise king must seek the happiness of all: of his kingdom, his draught animals, his army and his towns.Jataka 407 (Mahakapi Jataka), verse 7