Jatakas as Valuable Source Of Information On Ancient India

The Jataka Tales form part of the immense literature that ancient India had gifted to us. In the words of Dr. Winternitz, “The Jatakas were of inestimable value, not only as regards literature and art, but also from the point of view of history of civilization for the period of the 3^rd century BC.” This statement is indeed true when looked at the influence of the tales on majority of ancient literature, not only of India but also other parts of the world.

What are the Jatakas?

The Jatakas may be regarded as a body of literature that consists of various narratives of the life of Gautam Budhha taking birth in both human and animal forms. The narratives describe him as being born an elephant, a king, an outcast etc. but the motive behind each narrative is to highlight the moral values that he propagated in each of these characters. The narratives find huge popularity among children owing to the narration of the stories and the moral education that they have to impart.

The Buddhist literature, Theravad Buddhism refers to these Jatakas as a commentary to the famous Pali Kanon (a collection of Theravadan Buddhist literature). It makes a division of the texts mentioned in the Khuddaka Nikaya and Sutta Pitaka.

When did the Jatakas come into being?

The exact dates of the Jataka literature cannot be determined owing to several branches of the writing dating to different periods. A metrical analysis indicates that the contents were developed in around 4^th century BCE. Some tales were composed much before the birth of Buddha while some were belonging to later dates. The question of dating the Jatakas has been made even more difficult with the various sects of Buddhism having different claims over the tales. The Caitaka sect from the Andhra region considers it the Jatakas developed by them as the original collection before the splitting of the Buddhist tradition into the various lineages. But the Theravadan sect has equal claims over the originality of their tales. The counter-claims indicate one thing i.e. the development of the tales in different periods of time. Thus, it would be unjustified to push forward a fixed date for these valuable tales from our past.

However, some attempts of determination can be made from the evidence of the past like the inscription of quotes from the Jataka Mala or Arya Sura on the walls of Ajanta caves which dates back to the 6^th century. So, a mention at this period would indicate an even older evolution of these tales to give them such immense importance in the sixth century. Further, 434 BCE Chinese literature contains the translations from these tales.

What do the Jatakas contain?

The Jataka tales are a collection of stories and poems. But due to several translations and understandings, the exact number of such original contents is not known. There are around 34 stories which have all been depicted in Borobudur (a Mahayana Buddhist temple situated in Java, Indonesia, being the world’s largest temple and marked as a UNESCO World Heritage Site). As per the recordings of the Theravadas, their Jataka consists of 547 poems, out of which only last 50 could be read without any commentary on them. The remaining require understanding through commentaries which have mostly been written in forms of prose depicting the contents of the verses. It is these proses that have gained popularity among the folklorists and read widely rather than the original poems. But records show that in today’s date around 549 Jataka stories have been printed.

What influence did the Jatakas have on ancient literature?

Although there have been few attempts to read the Jatakas in their original form, their texts have nonetheless reached many due to a large number of translations and adoptions that they underwent. This is because the Jatakas cannot be merely regarded as stories of the previous birth of Budhha and moral values. They not only are valuable books for literature and art but also provide an important insight into the history of the civilization from the period of 3^rd century BC. So, they contain a beautiful description of political, social and religious structure of society in the 2^nd and 3^rd century BC.  But they have been often criticized as depicting very less of the biography of Gautam Buddha.

Their vast coverage of the period have influenced some of the famous Indian literary writings the Panchatantra of the Hindus, the niti-shastra written in Sanskrit etc. The stories have been adopted in the vernaculars of every region and passed on through oral tradition. Their easy adoption is facilitated by the narrations being simple stories like The Monkey and the Crocodile, The Turtle Who Couldn’t Stop Talking etc.  While this seems to prove the greatness of the tales, there are certain disadvantages to such adoptions. Huge amount of exchange of hands leads to disruption of parts of the original story. So, although the Sanskrit and Tibetan Jataka stories have tried to maintain the original texts of the Pali tradition to the extent possible, several amendments are found in the Persian or other languages.

In the modern form, some English writers like EB Cowell translated them to English and were published in six volumes by the Cambridge University Press in around 1895 to 1907. Smaller books containing parts of the narratives are sold worldwide.

Are the Jataka stories reflected in other Structures?

The fact that the Jatakas have influenced most of the understanding of ancient India is not only reflected in literature, but equally evident in the artistic structures, celebrations, ceremonies etc. taken from that period. One of the most important ones that is the Borobudur temple has been discussed before. One important structure is the Mankiala stupa, now in Northern Pakistan. The Jatakas depict one of the incarnations of Buddha to sacrifice himself to feed a tiger in this location. There are stories of similar sacrifices made at the ascetic Ekasranga, Mangalura, Hadda Mountain and Sarvadattan. Most of these locations lie in Pakistan.

The Jatakas had also found popularity among theatre performers and dancers. Some famous tales which were comparatively long were adopted through several dance performances, plays and recitations. These include The Twelve Sisters, Vessantara Jataka etc. These are performed in celebrations till date and are associated even with holidays in some Buddhist dominant countries like Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Laos.