Discuss the contents of Jatakas. What do they depict?
The Jataka stories have an important place in Buddhist literature. These stories were originally written in Pali, the language of the Buddhist scriptures and compiled in books during the first century B.C.
There are about 500 Jataka tales that tell about the 84,000 previous births of the Buddha.
i. It was believed that before he was finally born as Gautama, the Buddha passed through more than 84,000 births, in many cases in the form of animals. Each birth story is called a Jataka, which is a folk tale.
ii. They are interesting and deal with the common life of people, economic conditions and social manner and customs of those times. The subjects of these stories were used in sculptures in the railings of the famous stupas.