Jataka Tales – H. T. Francis, E. J. Thomas (1916) (1st ed)

S$95.00

Jataka Tales – H. T. Francis, E. J. Thomas (1916) (1st ed)

S$95.00

Title: Jataka Tales: Selected and Edited with Introduction and Notes

Author: H. T. Francis, E. J. Thomas

Publisher: Cambridge, 1916. First edition

Condition: Hardcover, no dust jacket. Very good. With 8 black-and-white plates. 488pp. App 9″ by 6″.

About the book (from Wikipedia):

The Jātaka tales (Sanskrit: जातक, birth history’) are a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. The future Buddha may appear as a king, an outcast, a god, an elephant—but, in whatever form, he exhibits some virtue that the tale thereby inculcates. Often, Jātaka tales include an extensive cast of characters who interact and get into various kinds of trouble – whereupon the Buddha character intervenes to resolve all the problems and bring about a happy ending.

In Theravada Buddhism, the Jātakas are a textual division of the Pāli Canon, included in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka. The term Jātaka may also refer to a traditional commentary on this book.