The Jātaka are the stories of the Buddha’s previous lives. In each one, the Bodhisatta (awakening being) is seen developing those qualities that led to his full enlightenment as the Buddha of our era. These stories, which number more than five hundred, features the Buddha in many animal and human forms, from elephant and monkey to tree-spirit and outcaste acrobat. Each of the Jātaka is set within a frame narrative, in which the Buddha tells the tale of his former births. They often begin with a standard phrase: “In the past, when Brahmadatta was the king, reigning the kingdom in Benares, the Bodhisatta came into being in the womb of a….” The stories usually conclude with the Buddha identifying who the characters were: “The woodpecker was Sariputto, the turtle was Moggallana, and I, myself, was the antelope.”
