Burmese Theatre: The Jataka Tales

The 'Jataka Tales' encompass any of the extremely popular stories of former lives of the Buddha, which are preserved in all branches of Buddhism. Dating from the 3rd century BC there are many collections of the Jataka. One of the earliest known collections dates from the 5th century; questionably attributed to a Buddhist scholar named Buddhagosa and called the Jatakat thavan nana, or Jatakat thakatha, it gathers together about 550 Jataka stories, some of which are quite brief while others are as long as novelettes.

Each tale begins by noting the occasion that prompted its telling and ends with the Buddha identifying the lives of the people in the introductory story with those of people from the past. There is humour in these stories and considerable variety. The future Buddha may appear in them as a king, an outcast, a god, an elephant—but, in whatever form, he exhibits some virtue that the tale thereby illustrates. Each tale thus has a clearly identifiable moral.

Many Jatakas have parallels in the Maha bharata (“Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty”), the Pañca-tantra (animal fables), the Pura nas (collections of legends), and elsewhere in non-Buddhist Indian literature. Some turn up again in such places as Aesop's fables. The Jataka stories have also been illustrated frequently in sculpture and painting throughout the Buddhist world.

Extracted and adpted from : ""Jataka" Encyclopædia Britannica, <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=44403>, [Accessed January 25, 2002]"

Links

There are many websites with Jataka tales. One reproduces a 1920s book written for children. It contains 21 simplified animal tales and illustrations ripe for adaption for 'quick' shadow puppets.

• More Jataka Tales @ http://www.mainlesson.com/authors/babbitt.shtml , retold by Ellen C. Babbitt