Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c2.19

c2.19

The above discussion, then, brief though it is, points to the pre-Buddhist origin of the *Jātakas*—*Jātakas* in the sense of versified stories. S. R. Otto Franke: "The bulk of *Jātaka-Gāthās* is the work of many, chiefly non-Buddhist authors, though one editor or compiler (not author) may, by recasting the whole, have altered and even added verses here and there. Authors of folklore have always remained anonymous: the story originates in the mind of one man: he composes the verses and puts them afloat among the folk: in course of time these verses become the common possession of the whole folk: the verses are thus preserved, with very rare modification: the prose which is only a commentary on these verses changes from mouth to mouth, until it settles in the form in which it is finally committed to writing. This is, in general, the life-story of a folk-tale. The same can be said with regard to the *Jātaka* stories.