Jataka

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Khudda-bodhi-Jataka, Borobudur

A Jātaka ( Sanskrit जातक, actually "birth story") is a morally instructive story in the sense of a narrative from the life of the Buddha . In its original sense, the term only included stories from the life of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama , but later more and more moral doctrinal stories were added that refer to earlier existences and other forms of existence of the Buddha. It is therefore now a separate genre of narratives, some of which have been "borrowed" from other religions ; some Jātaka stories can be found in completely different story collections.

A collection of 547 Jātaka narratives is available in the Suttapitaka (collection Khuddaka-Nikaya ) as part of the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism. In addition, there are translations into Sanskrit and Tibetan and other languages ​​of practiced Buddhism . The tradition usually follows older models, mostly the stories that according to tradition go back to Ananda , a disciple of the Buddha.

Especially when the actors appear as animals with human characteristics, a Jātaka is often reminiscent of a fable from European narrative history. According to the Buddhist understanding, animals are in principle the same as humans and are only on a different level of the ladder of knowledge .

The Buddhist Jātakas have parallels with the ancient Indian pancatantra ("sea of ​​stories"). The narrative researcher Joseph Jacobs (1912) saw some Jatakas as models for the fables of the ancient Greek poet Aesop , from whom medieval European fables are derived.

In the fine arts of Asia, motifs from the stories are widespread. Jataka narratives also form the basis for numerous forms of theater in Buddhist countries, including the Thai dance drama Lakhon , the shadow plays Nang yai and Nang talung in Thailand and the puppet theater Yoke thé in Myanmar.

literature

Translations:

  • Jatakas. Buddhist rebirth stories. Translation: Julius Dutoit , introduction: Hellmuth Hecker , 3 vol., Beyerlein and Steinschulte, Stammbach 2007. ISBN 978-3-931095-66-6
  • Buddhist birth-stories: Jataka tales. The commentarial introd. entitled Nidanakatha; the story of the lineage. Translated from V. Fausböll's ed. Of the Pali text by TW Rhys Davids, London G. Routledge 1878 digitized (PDF 9.5 MB)
  • Julius Dutoit (transl.), Jatakam: The book of stories from the earlier existences of Buddha, Radelli & Hille, Leipzig, 6 volumes, 1908–1914 Vol. 1 / PDF 53 MB Vol. 2 / PDF 47.3 MB Vol. 3 / PDF 58.2 MB vol. 4 / PDF 53.8 MB vol. 5 / PDF 46.2 MB vol. 6 / PDF 59.2 MB (GRETIL e-library) accessed on August 24, 2013
  • EB Cowell (ed): "The Jataka or Stories of the Buddhas former Births, Vol. 1-6, Cambridge at the University Press 1895
  • Tropper, Kurt: The Jataka inscriptions in the skor lam chen mo of the Zha lu monastery: Introduction, text-critical study, edition of panels 1-8 with Sanskrit parallels and German translation. Working group for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, Vienna 2005 ( Vienna Studies on Tibetology and Buddhist Studies 63). ISBN 3-902501-02-2
  • Horner, Isaline Blew; Jaini, Padmanabh S. (1985). Apocryphal Birth-stories (Paññāsa-Jātaka), London; Boston: Pali Text Society, distributed by Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 9780860132332
  • Henry Thomas Francis: Jātaka tales . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1916

Web links

Commons : Jataka  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joseph Jacobs : Indian Fairy Tales London / New York 1912, Preface