Buddhist Birth-Stories by Rhys Davids
The Jatakas represent pre-Aesop Fables. In fact, many of those fables are based on original Buddhist works (Ref: Rhys Davids, "Origin of Aesop's Fables," p. xxix, Buddhist Birth-Stories: Jataka Tales, Srishti Publishers, New Delhi, 1998). For an online link to these stories, click below.
INTRODUCTION
There is a tale known as the Hero's Tasks, which exists among the most widely-scattered peoples. Comparative mythologists have explained it as a myth of the spring rains and the moon. But it does not fit into any of the theories of folktales prepared for its reception. Benfey held that although the impulse to invent folktales is a feature of general human nature, yet the existing folktales of Europe and Asia as a matter of fact originated in India.
That may not be true. Andrew Lang has compared various forms of it found among unrelated peoples. A similar tale is found among the Algonquin Indians, the Samoans, and Zulus, besides Europeans. It also exists in an Indian shape in the present selection of birth-stories from the Jataka (No. 220).
CONTENTS
Cambridge University Press
THE LITTLE GILDMASTER (CULLAKASETTHI-JATAKA 1 , 4)
- A young man picks up a dead mouse which he sells, and works up his capital till he becomes rich.
THE KING AND THE STICK-GATHERER (KATTHAHARI-JATAKA, 7) 16
- A king refuses to recognise his son by a chance amour; the mother throws the child into the air, praying that, if he be not the king's son, he may be killed by his fall. The child rests in mid-air, and the king recognizes him as his son.
KING MAHADEVA'S GREY HAIRS (MAKHADEVA-JATAKA, 9)
- A king, finding a grey hair in his head, renounces his throne to prepare as a hermit for death. He is re-born as a king and again becomes a hermit.
THE COLD HALF OF THE MONTH (MALUTA-JATAKA, 17)
- A tiger and a lion dispute whether it is the dark or the light half of the month which is cold.
THE FEAST FOR THE DEAD (MATAKABHATTA-JATAKA, 18)
- A goat, which was to be sacrificed by a brahmin, shews signs of great joy and of great sorrow. It explains the reason for each emotion.
THE MONKEYS AND THE OCRS (NALAPANl-JATAKA, 20)
- Thirsty monkeys come to a pool haunted by an ogre. Their leader miraculously blows knots out of canes, with which they safely slake their thirst.
THE GUILTY DOGS (KUKKURA-JA.TAKA, 22)
- Carriage-straps having been jn&.ved by palace dogs, a king orders all other dogs to be killed. The leader of a pack of dogs reveals the truth by causing an emetic to be applied to the royal dogs.
THE DISCONTENTED OX (MUNIKA-JATAKA, 30)
- A young ox, seeing a lazy pig being fattened, is discontented with his hard fare. Another ox explains that the pig is being fattened to be eaten, and the discontented ox accepts his position.
THE PEACOCK'S WOOING (NACCA-JATAKA, 32)
- The daughter of the Golden Mallard, king of birds, chooses the peacock for her husband. In dancing for joy the peacock exposes himself and is rejected.
THE FOWLER AND THE QUAILS (SAMMODAMANA-JATAKA, 33)
- Quails caught in a net rise up in a body with the net and escape several times. After a time they quarrel and are caught.
THE OLDEST OF THE ANIMALS (TITTIRA-JATAKA, 37)
- A partridge, a monkey, and an elephant decide to obey the eldest of them. To prove seniority each gives his earliest recollection.
THE CRANE AND THE CRAB (BAKA-JATAKA, 38)
- A crane, pretending that he was taking them to a big lake, devours all the fish of a pond. A wise crab nips the bird's head off.
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