Jataka
Jataka South and Central AsiaThe ‘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...
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