Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c7.110

c7.110

It is quite impossible to summarise all the stories of the jātakas usually painted on vihāra walls. The Vessantara story is given by way of example. But the variety is infinite; the Bōdhisat* was born not only as a man, but very often as an animal or a dēva. The whole series of stories forms not merely a collection of edifying fables, of which many are very beautiful, but is the most valuable collection of early folk-lore extant. The stories are accessible in English, in the translation edited by Prof. Cowell, and published at Cambridge (1895–1907); the last of the six volumes of this work has just been issued.† The jātakas most usually illustrated are the Vessantara, Sattubhatta, Sutasoma, Silava, Daham-Soṇḍa, Sasa, Kiṇḍurā.