Conclusion

The Jātaka stories are episodes of previous life of the Buddha. It is a voluminous body of literature that belongs to India. India has always had a rich tradition of oral storytelling, which technique has been used by various religious preachers to spread their messages. According to folk lore the Buddha often recited stories from his past lives to teach his disciples the right conduct of life which came to be compiled as the Jātakas. In the very early period Jātaka stories were depicted in verse (gāthā). These verses elaborately depicted in Jātakaṭṭhakathāvaṇṇanā or Jātakaṭṭhakathā (largest and best-known Commentary on the Jātaka). The verses are believed to be Buddhavacana. However, these verses come to life only with their surrounding prose narrative, which is nonetheless considered commentarial and was only fixed after a long history in the 6^th century C.E. The Jātaka stories originally passed down orally. About 4^th century B.C.E. these stories got a written form and it was originally written in Pāli language by the Theravāda School. After that Jātaka Buddhist tales have been translated in different languages around the world (Sanskrit-Jātaka, Burmese-Zatc, Khmer-Cietak, Lao-Sadok, Thai-Chadok and other Asian languages).

According to Sinhalese tradition, the Jātaka stories composed in Pāli in India were taken to Sri Lanka by Thera Mahendra (the son of King Aśoka) about 250 B.C.E. and the commentary translated there into Sinhalese and again retranslated into Pāli in 5^th century C.E. by Buddhaghoṣa later. The original Sinhalese text was lost. But there might have existed as a text containing Jātaka stories in India too at least by the 3^rd and 2^nd century B.C. Some of other stories are pre-Buddhist origin ranging down to the 5^th century C.E. Although the Theravāda school is credited to have collected together its Jātakas into a single collection of such magnitude as the Jātakaṭṭhakathāvaṇṇanā, we find Jātaka stories in other important Indian Buddhist texts–the Nidāna kathā, the Buddhavaṃsa, the Cariyāpiṭaka, the Mahāvastu, the Avadānaśataka, the Divyavadāna, the Mūlasarvāstivādī Vinaya, Jātakamālā etc.

Jātaka stories emphasize the Buddha’s great abilities as visionary and storyteller, and illustrate moral lessons, the efficacy of Kamma or the perfections required for the attainment of Buddhahood. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that Jātaka genre as a whole had an important role in the formation and communication of ideas about Buddhahood, Kamma and merit and the place of the Buddha in relation to other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The kinds of rebirths described in Jātaka tales are very diverse. 

The following table gives the number of births of The Bodhisattva of each kind, which are also representative of the generality (although the Bodhisattva is usually presented as a wise, righteous and compassionate leader), based on the table produced by Spence Hardy’s pandit and reproduced in Buddhist Birth-Stories:^[1]

King	85	Potter	3
Ascetic	83	Outcast	3
Tree god	43	Iguana	3
Teacher	26	Fish	2
Brahmana	24	Rat	2
Courtier	24	Elephant driver	2
King’s son	24	Jackal	2
Sakka	20	Thief	2
Monkey	18	Pig	2
Merchant	13	Dog	1
Man of property	12	Curer of snake bites	1
Deer	11	Gambler	1
Lion	10	Mason	1
Wild duck	8	Smith	1
Snipe	6	Devil dancer	1
Elephant	6	Student	1
Cock	5	Silversmith	1
Slave	5	Carpenter	1
Eagle	5	Water-fowl	1
Horse	4	Frog	1
Bull	4	Hare	1
Brahma	4	Kite	1
Peacock	3	Jungle cock	1
Serpent	3	Fairy	1

The following table categorize the rebirths in the previous table, giving the gross percentage in each category.

Animal	30%
Human	28%
Worldly	24%
Noble	7%
Superhuman	5%
Religious	4%
Military	1%

In this way Kamma can reproduce itself over a prolonged period, recurrently, until the energy potential that motivates it is exhausted. The body of rebirth itself is an example of the operation of Kamma. Thus, physical appearance and health problems can be the result of the operation of Kamma. The Jātaka tales clearly portray the Buddha and his disciples moving through six distinct modes of rebirth: in suffering states as hell being, hungry ghosts and animals; in intermediate or mixed states as are the rarest mode of existence but with the greatest potential for supreme enlightenment. However, human beings also move freely between rebirths as hell beings, hungry ghosts and animals and devas. The Buddha himself in one of his Bodhisattva births was reborn as hell beings who suffered for eighty thousand years in recompense for a previous birth in which he spent twenty years as a king. Sages and the Buddha Himself are represented as taking rebirth in animal form, even birds. Thus, there is little distinction in Buddhism between the spiritual state of animal and human; most human is only slightly more evolved than animal, and may easily be reborn as animal and vice-versa, but the Buddha is never represented as having been born as a female.

However, the Buddha’s long path, as we discover was not an individual path of gradually accrued virtue, but a communal path involving repeated interactions with others. Commenting on the long standing propensities of key characters from the Buddha’s retinue, and highlighting their multilife relationship with him, appears to be another key theme of Jātaka stories in some texts, including the copious Jātakaṭṭhakathāvaṇṇanā. The Buddha’s multilife relationship with his parents, wife and son is also common in the stories, often reinforcing the strength of attachment to his family that had to be overcome in his final life. The Jātakas therefore build up a sense of a whole Buddhist community moving toward its final formation, in which most of its members achieve liberation.

The Buddha founded a religion is to prejudice our understanding of his far-reaching influence. For in modern usage the word religion denotes merely one department of human activity, now regarded as of less and less public importance, and belonging almost entirely to the realm of man’s private affairs. But whatever else Buddhism is or is not, in Asia it is a great social and cultural tradition. Born of a revolution in India though it has found sponsors in many of the countries of Asia outside the land of its origin. It has found its way into the common life of the towns and villages of much of Asia. Especially in Sri Lanka and SouthEast Asia it has continued to the present day to impart to the ordinary people its own characteristic values and attitudes has had a profound influence on the life of the home, as well as of the nation.

Buddhism has not encouraged ideas of dominance, in the sense that man should, by some divine sanction, dominate either his environment, or his fellow men.

“In the Buddhist civilization the key word is cooperation, at every level of being. Here the word ‘religion’ , denoting beliefs and practises connected with spite-beings. Buddhism was in origin not a religion, but a non-religious philosophy. Buddhism in its Asian setting remains in certain respects what it was in origin, a way of attempting to restructure human consciousness and common life of men in accordance with the nature of what it conceived to be the sacred reality. There are signs that in the modern period this important dimension of Buddhist civilization–the social and political dimension–has been lost sight of, and that Buddhism is being reduced from a civilization to what the moden world understands by religion: that is, a system of ‘spiritual’ belief to be taken up by the minority in whatever country it happens to be who care for the sort of thing, a source of comfort to some, but in the last resort a private irrelevance, having little bearing on the real issues that shape human affairs.”^[2]

In addition to these of Jātaka texts, there have been some important explorations of the stories present in the art and culture of the Buddhists world. While it was initially assumed that Jātaka illustrations were always meant to provide a visual narrative representation of a story, recent scholarship has explored the role of Jātaka depictions in instilling power or sacredness in a site, as part of the sacred biography of the Buddha and as the symbolic of the perfections. A similar association between Jātakas and the potency of the Buddhahood has Been shown to be behind some uses of the stories in the ritual consecration of images. Furthur works on the uses of Jātaka in Buddhist life, including sermons, rituals and festivals, remains a key priority for our understanding of the genre.

Jātaka stories have been depicted at Buddhists Stūpa and temple sites since before the beginning of the Common Era, and continue to be a popular form of Buddhist visual art to this day. They also play an important role in the cultural life of some Buddhist countries, inspiring literature, theatre, opera and other art forms. Their place in the Buddha’s sacred biography gives them a special symbolic value, which is behind some uses of the stories in art and ritual. Several hundred stories were compiled in various texts, illustrations of the Jātaka stories have been popular at the Buddhist sites at least since they first adorned the stone gateways and railing that surround the Stūpa at Bhārhut in Madhya Pradesh in the 1^st century B.C.E. Similar stone reliefs can be found at nearby Sāñcī and South Indian sites of Kanāganahalli, Nāgārjunikoṇḍā and Amarāvatī, all dating to the first few centuries C.E. These early reliefs are often monoscenic, though sometimes several scenes are depicted in a single roundel or panel. These early reliefs depicting Jātakas provide evidence for the widespread currency of the stories during the early centuries C.E. and suggest that they were considered appropriate for illustration at Stūpa sites. This location for the stories suggests an early association between the Jātaka genre and the sacred biography of the Buddha, an association strengthened by the presence of scenes from the final of the Buddha at the same sites. As a part of what made the Buddha who he was, the Jātaka form an important element in his long life story, a life story that often continues through the presence of his relics at the Stūpa site, The popularity of the Jātaka stories at Buddhist sites continued unabated through subsequent centuries and across the Buddhist world. The stories were included in the art of Stūpa complexes in Gāndhāra in the far North-West, an area of intense Buddhist activity in the early centuries of the Common Era.

The stories also appear in a different type of setting, namely monastic cave complexes, such as the western Indian sites Ajantā and Bāgha. The Ajantā caves (Maharastra) include Jātaka stories painted in intricate murals dating from the 5^th century C.E. often covering an entire wall with their complicated multiscenic narratives. Murals in caves found along the Silk Route toward China, such as at Dunhuang and Kizil, also testify to the popularity of Jātaka stories. The depiction of Jātaka stories was important as well in many later sites, for example the great stories of the Jātakaṭṭhakathāvaṇṇanā, which are understood as making up the final ten lives of the Buddha and are associated with the ten perfections required for Buddhahood. The first evidence of the ten being depicted together as a set is from 11^th century Mon temples of lower Burma (Myanmar), but the group of ten became particularly common from 18^th century onwards, especially in Thailand. The ten appear on the inside walls of temple “upasatha hall”, painted on cloth banners, or depicted on gold lacquered picture cabinet. They are also commonly illustrated on manuscripts, especially those full quota of Jātaka stories was not forgotten with this focus on the ten, however: Wat Khrua Wan (Thonburi, Thailand first half of the 19^th century) has over 500 of the Jātakaṭṭhakathāvaṇṇanā stories painted in squre-panels in its ‗upasatha hall”, while the Ānanda Temple in Pagan (Myanmar, 11^th -12^th century C.E.) has terracotta tiles depicting all 547 stories.

The inclusion of Jātaka images in such a diverse range of Buddhists testifies not only to their enduring popularity, but also to their importance as part of the sacred biography of the Buddha, and their continued relevance as a teaching aid. Their appearance is not limited to the visual arts, for their literary value is also an important role of the stories‘appeal. The tales have been reworked as plays, radio plays, television and film adaptations, poems, songs, opera and dance, and they continue to be an important part of the cultural heritage of Buddhist countries, especially those from the Theravāda world. In Burma the poetic genre Pyo usually draws on Jātaka stories, and much traditional Thai literature rests on the Jātakas, especially the Paññāsa Jātaka, while a series of Thai opera-ballets is reinterpreting the final ten Jātakas of the Jātakaṭṭhakathāvaṇṇanā for a modern audience. Textual and artistic evidence suggests that Jātaka stories played an important role in Buddhist life throughout history.

The Jātaka stories often form a part of sermons and other forms of teaching, and it seems likely that this has always been their primary function. We know little of the early audience for the stories, though they probably included both monks and nuns and lay people, since the many stories vary in their messages. Some stories emphasize the importance of renunciation or focus on the dangers of sense pleasures, messages particularly suitable monastic audience. Many others emphasize the glories of the Buddha that make Buddhism and its institutions so worthy of support; such massages are more suitable for lay supporters. The stories would have been conductive to a wide variety of teaching uses, from simple moral lessons to illustrations of the path to Buddha-hood.

It would be wrong, however, to view Jātakas as simply a form of narrative teaching. Because of their association with the sacred biography of the Buddha, and with the perfections that make Buddhahood possible. Jātaka stories also have various symbolic roles. The stories played an important role in doctrinal formations, at least in the early period. The layers of the Jātakaṭṭhakathāvaṇṇanā, for example, suggest that during this text’s gradual consolidation the idea of a Jātaka as illustrative of the Bodhisattva path was developing. This association, applied to an existing and varied body of stories, threw up certain challenges, since emerging ideas about the path to Buddhahood had to be reconciled with, for example, stories of the Bodhisattva’s immoral conduct^[3]. The consistent maleness of his past lives also resulted in various discussion of the extent to which being a man is a necessary prerequisite for the Bodhisattva path. In other schools, Jātaka stories were also used to explore notions of Buddhahood and the qualities required for it, as well as understanding of Kamma and merit, and the place of the Buddha in relation to other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

https://palisuttas.wordpress.com; cf. Buddhist Birth-Stories, T.W. Rhys Davids, table VII, p.246.

[2]:

The Buddha: The Social Revolutionary potential of Buddhism, Trevor Ling, p.37.

[3]:

Kaṇavera Jātaka (No. 318), Satapatta Jātaka (No. 279), Mahāummagga Jātaka (No. 546).