In 300 B.C, the Jataka Tales were written for the mankind to gain knowledge and morality. Ever since, Jataka tales have become story books that are both enjoyable as well as knowledgeable. Originally written in Pali language, Jataka Buddhist tales have been translated in different languages around the world. The luminous fables of ‘Jataka’ are intended to impart values of self-sacrifice, morality, honesty and other informative values to people.
No less than 547 in number, Jataka Tales are an important part of Buddhist literature. Jatak stories represent former incarnations of Buddha, at times like an animal, a bird and sometimes like a human being, the future Siddhartha Gautama. The setting of the stories is made in or near Benares (Varanasi), which is a holy city in north central India. Some of the popular story/ tale from Jatak collection are provided here.
This is another nice story from the album of Jataka Kathaye (Tales). Once upon a time, there was a swan / goose that had striking golden feathers. This swan lived in a pond. There was a house near this pond, where a poor woman lived with her two daughters. The people were really poor and were leading a tough life. The swan found that the poor mother was passing a hard time with her daughters.
This one is a nice story from the album of Jataka Kathaye/ Tales. Once upon a time, it happened in a forest that a hare was resting under a banyan tree. He had an intuition of doom and thought, “What would happen to me, if the earth will break? “. Suddenly, he heard a weird striking sound. He said, “It’s happened, the earth is breaking up”. He jumped up and ran madly without even observing the direction.
Here is another interesting story from the collection of Jataka Tales. Once upon a time, there lived a lion in a forest. One day, when he went to drink water in a river, one of his feet got stuck into the damp mushy mud of the river. He tried a lot to get out of the mud, but to no avail. He had to lie without food for days because he didn’t find any help. On one fortunate day, a kind jackal came to drink water from the river. When he saw the lion, he went closer to the lion and said, “What is the matter? Why are you resting here?”
It is an interesting story from the collection of Jataka Tales. Once upon a time, some people from a certain town went into a forest for an excursion. They want to enjoy the holiday to its fullest. They took baskets full of eatables with them. They ate all the meat they had brought with them till the noon time. They didn’t leave anything for the dinner and suddenly realized that what they would eat in the dinner. They wanted to enjoy the vacation and without proper food, it was quite impossible.
This is another interesting story / tale from the Jataka collection. Once upon a time, there was a royal elephant that used to reside in the premises of the king’s palace. The elephant was very dear to the king, so he was cared, well-fed and well-treated. There was a Dog who used to live in the neighborhood of the Elephant shed. He was very weak and skinny. He was always fascinated by the smell of the rich sweet rice being fed to the royal elephant.
It is another interesting story from the album of Jataka Tales. Once upon a time, there lived a family of Hawks in a lake near a forest. The family included Female-Hawk, Male-Hawk and their Kid-Hawks. All of them were passing their days happily. There also lived a Lion, a Kingfisher and a Turtle on the northern, the eastern and the southern shore of this lake respectively. One day, the Female-Hawk asked her husband, “Sweetheart, how many friends do you have near here?”
Here is another nice story from the collection of Jataka kathaye / tales. Once upon a time, there lived two friends in the shade of a rock. It would sound strange, but one of them was a lion and the other was a tiger. They were friends since their childhood. They knew each other from the time, when they were too small to understand the difference between the lions and the tigers. Thus, their friendship was not at all strange to them.
Here is another nice tale/ story from the Jataka collection. Once upon a time, there lived the King of a big and affluent country. The King was quite fond of traveling. Usually, he didn’t like to visit his own country; instead he went to other countries. One day, he assembled his army to move out for a holiday to some distant country. The King and his soldiers walked for the whole morning in the forest. After this, they went into the camp to take some rest.
This is a nice story from the collection of Jataka Tales. Once upon a time, there lived a merchant in a small village. The merchant dealt in different kinds of goods. He wanted to sell his goods in the town, in order to gain good sum of profits. One day, he decided to go to the town to try his fortune. He arranged for some men who could go along with him. During the journey, he had to pass through a desert, so he also arranged for water, rice and firewood.
This is another nice story from the collection of Jataka Tales. Once upon a time, there lived a merchant of Seri, who sold brass and tin ware. He used to go from place to place, in order to sell his products. He was usually accompanied by another merchant, who also sold brass and tin ware. The second merchant was greedy. He wanted every thing for free and if he bought something, he paid as little as possible.
