Author: A N D Haksar
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 301
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8172234554
Description
The Jatakamala is a famous work in both Buddhist and Sanskrit literature. It recounts thirty-four stories of the Buddha’s previous births, and his virtuous deeds in those incarnations-as a god, man or animal.
Written by Arya Shura in the fourth century AD in elegant Sanskrit prose and verse, these tales were later translated into Chinese and Tibetan. Some of these tales are depicted in the Ajanta cave paintings. Their colourful backgrounds range from a sea voyage to a battle scene, a forest fire to a royal hunt, and from the charms of harem to the horrors of hell. Against these are presented a gamut of predicaments in the course of doing what is right.
Twelve of these tales are not found in any other collection, including the Pali jataka texts. Popular through the ages, they remain highly readable today, both for their timeless message of compassion and concord, and the vivid and dramatic imagery with which it is presented.
REVIEWS
This is a book of which I am very fond, for it is a Tibetan tradition that the Dalai Lama should teach one of these stories at the culmination of the Great Prayer Festival that is celebrated every Tibetan New Year.
-The Dalai Lama
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Prologue
The Tigress
The Shibi King
A Bit of Gruel
The Merchant Prince
The Unconquerable
The Hare
The Hermit
King Maitribala
Prince Vishvantara
The Sacrifice
Shakra
The Brahmin Student
The Enchantress
Suparaga the Navigator
The Fish
The Fledgling Quail
The Pitcher
The Renunciant
The Lotus Stalks
The King’s Banker
A Question of Anger
The Two Swans
Mahabodhi the Renunciant
The Great Ape
The Sharabha Antelope
The Ruru Deer
The Great Monkey
The Preacher of Forbearance
The Horrors of Hell
The Elephant
Prince Sutasoma
The Prince from the Iron House
The Buffalo
The Woodpecker
Notes