Jataka: Buddhist Collection of Folk Tales

Jataka is a collection of stories about the Buddha’s previous births as a Bodhisttva. In Hinayana form of Buddhism, Bodhisattva is a previous incarnation of a Buddha. For an orthodox Buddhist Jataka tales are the autographical accounts of Gautama Buddha and hence a part of the Buddhist religious scriptures.

One of the earliest and most significant collections of folk tales extant, the Jataka (written in the Prakrit language of Pali) comprises 547 stories. The stories are written in full in a prose commentary which has been credited to Buddhaghosa. The collection contains fables, moral tales, fairy tales, maxims and legends.

The Jataka stories are included in the Khuddaka Nikaya.