A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.163

v2.c19.s3.t2.163

10. This is especially true of the collection of Jātakas included in the Khuddaka-Nikāya, "stories of former births (of the Buddha)"¹ or "Bodhisatta stories," as they might be more briefly called. A "Bodhisatta," in Buddhist dogmatics, is a being (Pāli satta, Sanskrit sattva), who is destined to obtain enlightenment (bodhi), *i.e.* to become a Buddha.² Gotama the Buddha (*i.e.* the "enlightened one") is called "Bodhisatta" up to the time when he attained enlightenment, not only in his last earthly existence, but in all the countless existences which he experienced as man, animal or god, before he was re-born for the last time as the son of the Sakya prince. Now, a "Jātaka" is a story in which the Bodhisatta plays a part in one of his former existences, whether as the hero of the story or as a secondary character or as a spectator only. Hence every Jātaka begins with the words: "At such and such a time (*e.g.* at the time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares) the Bodhisatta was re-born in the womb of such and such a being (*e.g.* of the queen or of a female elephant)"; then follows the story. In this way it was possible to change into a Jātaka any story which was told among the people or which was known from secular literature. One had only to make a Bodhisatta out of some human, animal or divine being which occurred in the story, and any story, however worldly and however far removed from the sphere of Buddhist thought, could become a "Buddhist" story. Now the Buddhist monks would not have been true Indians, if they had not taken into account the need, so deeply rooted in the soul of the Indian people, of hearing and relating stories, and if they had not utilised this need to gain followers for their religion. In fact, not only the Buddhist monks, but the preachers of all sects in India, have always done what the Christian monks of the West did centuries later. Gregory the Great had already recommended to these last-named the use of "example," of the narrative serving as argument, "quia nonnunquam mentes audientium plus exempla fidelium quam docentium verba convertunt."¹ The monks in India likewise maintained this principle. Just like the Christian preachers later, the Buddhist monks utilised for their purposes all kinds of stories, fairy-tales, fables, anecdotes, etc. Therefore a good idea of the Jātaka collection is given by books like the "Gesta Romanorum" or *Wesselski's* "Mönchslatein," in which the stories, culled from the sermons of the clergy of various centuries, are collected, with their varied contents, mixture of sacred legends and often very worldly stories. The more rigorous Buddhist Theras of the olden days do not seem to have been greatly in favour of this story-telling, for several passages of the canon² speak disapprovingly of the loud conversations of the monks, who tell one another stories of kings, robbers, ministers, arms, wars, women, gods and spirits, sea-faring adventures, etc. However, in one of the earlier Buddhist Sanskrit texts¹ we already read that the Buddha teaches by means of Sūtras, Gāthās, legends and Jātakas.