The Jataka tales are stories that the Buddha told of his previous lifetimes as a Bodhisattva, before he attained final enlightenment. The Bodhisattva appears in each of these stories, in human or animal form, sometimes as the hero of the story, sometimes as one of the characters. The stories are concerned with everyday human concerns and questions and moral issues with which we struggle every day. In addition, they are witty and entertaining and filled with colourful characters: clever monkeys, greedy merchants, wise elephants, cruel kings, deceitful monks, and even an occasional tree spirit. Since the stories are believed to have been related by the Buddha himself, they are held in great veneration by Buddhists around the world. 

Jataka stories occur in Buddhist canonical literature from at least as early as 380 BCE if not earlier – which suggests that these stories were always a part of Buddhist literature. Jataka scenes are also found sculpted on the railings of the stupas as Sanchi, Amaravati and Bharhut, showing that the stories were widely known by the 3rd century BCE and considered an intrinsic part of the religion. The Chinese scholar and traveller Fa-Hsien, saw representations of these tales in Sri Lanka, in 400 CE.  These stories were also used by wandering Buddhist monks to explain and spread the word of the Buddha.

It is not certain when the Jataka stories were put together in the systematic form in which we have them today. At first, they were probably handed down orally, but given their importance and popularity, it is likely that they would have been recorded in a more permanent, written form sooner rather than later. The Pali work, called simply ‘The Jataka ‘, contains 550 stories arranged in 22 nipatas or books. These divisions are based roughly on the number of verses quoted in each story – so the first book contains 150 stories, each of which quotes only one verse, the second book contains 100 stories, each of which quote two verses, and so on till the 21st, which contains 5 stories that quote 80 verses each, and the 22nd, which contains 10 stories that quote 100 or more verses each. Each story begins with a preface, which gives the circumstances in which the Buddha relates that particular story and revealing some event in his previous lives on his path to becoming the Buddha.  At the end of each story is a short summary, in which the Buddha identifies the characters of his story in their present birth. Every story is also illustrated by a gatha – the lesson, teaching, or moral, in verse form –  which is uttered by the Buddha while still a Bodhisattva as part of the narrative. Sometimes these verses are said by the Buddha as himself. These verses are much more ancient than the stories, and perhaps the Jataka in its original form consisted only of these verses. Though these verses are almost impossible to understand without the accompanying stories and explanations, it is often the case that the commentary is passed on orally, in varying form, along with the core teaching or proverb.

The Sri Lankan tradition says that the original Jataka book consisted only of these gathas, and that a prose commentary on these, containing the stories, was written in very early times in Sinhalese. This was then translated into Pali in around 430 CE by Buddhaghosh, who translated many other Sinhalese commentaries into Pali as well. In any case, if the commentary was not composed by Buddhaghosh, it was composed soon after, and was only a redaction of materials handed down from very early times in the Buddhist community. Some of the Jataka stories are very clearly Buddhistic in origin, but many are folk tales which were found even earlier, and variations of which may be found in works as diverse as the 4th century Sanskrit text, Panchatantra, or used by Boccaccio in medieval Italy, or even as part of the Arthurian legend in Wales. 

The Jataka stories are interesting from two perspectives: as part of Buddhist literature, and as folklore that gives us a vivid glimpse into life in ancient India.