Thomas William Rhys Davids Buddhist Birth-Stories (Jataka Tales)

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. This essay and the following translation were published in 1880 as a volume in Tritbner's Oriental Series. That volume contained, further, the beginning Of a much longer work, namely the translation Of the so-called Jataka. This is a collection Of upwards of 550 folk-lore tales which forms part of the Buddhist canonical scriptures. The tales are in prose, each explaining a much more ancient poem of two or more lines. The allusions in the verses cannot be understood without the explanation given in the prose. Over and above this explanation there is added to each story an episode said to be from the life of the founder of what is now called Buddhism. Some thing has occurred which the founder likens to an episode in the long past, when, in a former life the actors in the present episode and he himself were engaged. In this way a moral, something like those in our fables, is drawn. At the same time the immensely long evolution in the full life or lives of all men and in particular of such a superman as the founder is brought out.