The Jataka stories, over millennia, have been seminal to the development of many civilisations, the cultivation of moral conduct and good behaviour, the growth of a rich and varied literature in diverse parts of the world and the inspiration for painting, sculpture and architecture of enduring aesthetic value.
The Buddha himself used jataka stories to explain concepts like kamma and rebirth and to emphasise the importance of certain moral values.
A Jataka bhanaka (jataka storyteller) is mentioned to have been appointed even as early as the time of the Buddha.
Such appointments were common in ancient Sri Lanka and among others, King Llanaga (1st century AD) is recorded in the mahavamsa, to have heard kapi jataka from a bhanaka bhikkhu.
It is in continuation of this noble tradition that these stories are now retold in print to an audience which had been denied access to them by language and other cultural barriers.
These stories are ever more relevant in the fragmented societies of today, where especially children, in their most formative years, seek helplessly for guidance in steering their lives to success and fulfilment.
No other civilisation has been as much nourished by this rich source as that in Sri Lanka. Sinhala, the language of the people of Sri Lanka, in which script the teachings of the Buddha were written down for the first time ever, carrier unerring marks of that nourishment. Both the most hallowed literary works as well as the colloquial language of ordinary present day villagers are replete with allusions to the better-known Jataka stories.
The latter would frequently refer to “king Vessantara” (who was generous to a fault), ‘king Cetiya” (an inveterate liar), the blind jackal (a most grateful friend) to prince Mahaushadha (of unfathomable wisdom), to a tortoise who readily takes to water or to the occasion when the sky fell on the hare.
There is hardly any form of Sihala literature which has not been fed by the well springs of jataka stories. Works of poetry beginning from Sasadavata (12th century), Muvadevdavata (12th century), Kausilumina (13th century), Guttila kavyaya and Kavyashekharaya (14th century), Kusa jataka kavyaya and Asadisa da Kava (17th century) embody jataka stories. Poems of other genre are replete with allusions to incidents and personalities drawn from jataka stories.
Among prose works Sulu Kalingu da vata (12 century), Ummagga Jataka (13th century), Bhuridatta Jataka (13th century) and Vessantara Jataka are jataka stories re-told in inimitable fashion. Other works such as Amavatura
(12th century), Butsarana (12 century), Pajavalia (13th century), Saddharmaratnavalia (13th century), and Saddharmalankaraya are deeply embellished with material form jataka stories. Until quite recently, the most widely read Sinhala prose work was Pansiya Panas Jataka Pota, number 6 in our list of sources.
Later works of drama such as the Sandakinduru Nadagama, Vessantara Nadagama, Pabavati, Kada Valalu, Kala gola and Pemato jayati soko are based on jataka stories.
Stories similar to jataka stories occur in the Vedas. Some of the Brahmanas and Puranas are simply narrative stories. In many places, the context, the style or the core stories are altered.
The same story is often told by different authors in different places, for example, Kausilumina and Kasadavata as poetry and Kabavati as drama are based on Kusajataka.
In Mahayana literature Asvaghos’s Sutralankara, Aryashura’s Jatakamala and Khsemendra’s Avadana Kalpalata are well known as jataka stories.
Indian Sanskrt works such as Katha sarit sagara, Dasa Kuamara carita, Panca tantra and Hitopadesa contain similar stories. These stories contributed to the later incomparable works of Kalidasa and Ashvaghosa.
There are also Mahayana jataka stories such as Vyaghri, Dhammasondaka and Seta Gandha Hasti which do not appear in Pali at all. Some jataka stories can be found in Jain literature, such as the story of Isisinga in Suyakadanga, which is the Nalini Jataka.
They are found in even the Mahabharata, for example Rsissringa upakhyana. Jataka and similar other stories travelled far and wide by word of mouth along caravan routes and contributed to the literature in Persia, China, Arabia (Arabian Nights) Italy (Boccaccio’s tales), Greece (Aesop’s Fables), Britain (Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales) and Japan (Zen stories).
For developing moral conduct and good behaviour, there are few more instructive foundation than jataka stories.
All Jataka stories hold out advice on how to correct our ways. They played and continue to play in some societies an enormous role in the cultivation of peace and generosity. When
Buddhist monks taught children in viharas, jataka stories took a prominent place in primary education. Young samaneras (novice monks) were required to read and preach effectively.
In India these and similar other stories were a principal instrument in the socialisation's of children, discouraging them from selfishness and laying foundations for family had community solidarity.
Jataka stories speak eloquently of those human values, which contribute, to harmony, pleasure and progress.
