Stories of The Buddha - Being Selections From The Jataka

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This book consists of English translation of a selection of 47 stories out of a colossal mass of about 550 stories dealing with sacred legends pertaining to the previous lives of the Shakya Muni, The Buddha. A collection of such stories is popularly known as Jataka. The Jataka stories constitute the revered and holy part of Buddhology and no student of history of Buddhism can afford to neglect or ignore them. They are important from cultural point of view as well and possess inestimable worth for Buddhist art. As interesting narrative literature they are significant but they are also of pedagogical value in so far as they contain worldly wisdom and practical guidance in day to day life. They have a great treasure of teachings for edification. Every story has a moral.

The collection of about 550 stories, entitled Jataka," or "The Jatakas," is included in the second of the threefold Pali (Buddhist) Canon, known as the Pitǎkas. It was first published in roman character in the excellent critical edition compiled by the Danish scholar, Victor Fausböll: London, 1877-1896. "About 550" is not very precise, but whereas, in the collection, a few stories are just duplicates, a few others consist, under one title, of two, three or more stories, and hence "about 550 is near enough. The appeal of the stories being wide, and their specific framework also of great interest, a translation was felt to be a desideratum. The first two volumes were associated on their title-page with the name of my husband as translator, and in 1880 he produced The Buddhist Birth stories, Vol. I, published in Trübner's Oriental Series, London. In this there were only the first forty stories, but preceding these was a translation of the long introductory talk," entitled Nidana-katha, "Talk on the Origin," or "on the Connected Basis." There- after he handed over the completion of his work, actually the entire collection, to the eminent Indologist, Edward Cowell, that it might be more quickly accomplished by a group of workers. Even so, and after many years' interval, it was a matter of ten years more, 1897-1907, that was needed for the publication, in six volumes, of the 550 stories, the translators being Messrs. (Robert, now Lord) Chalmers, Rouse, Francis and Neil, Cowell himself 1 Literally, "born-thing," "happened-thing." also contributing a portion. This translation, exclusive of the Nidana-katha, was produced by the Cambridge University Press. My husband's translation of the Nidana-katha, with his critical discussion on the nature and history of the Jatakas as canonical material, and on the problem of the migration of some of them into or from other countries, has been reissued lately in the Broadway Translation Series (London: Routledge's).

**Contents and Sample Pages**