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100-689: The Āṭānāṭiya Sutta is the 32nd Sutta in the Dīgha Nikāya ("Long Discourses of Buddha ") of Pāli Canon . It is a poem of spiritual protection against evil spirits and it was presented to the Buddha by one of the "Four Great Heavenly Kings", King Vessavana (Pali; Sanskrit: Vaisravana). It also contains a description of the celestial kingdoms of Four Heavenly Kings . This scripture can also be found in Dīrgha Āgama of Chinese Buddhist canon and Kangyur of Tibetan Buddhist canon . This Theravada -related article

200-511: A bodhisattva , and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb. The sources which present a complete picture of the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies from

300-606: A white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilavastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. Her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree . The earliest Buddhist sources state that the Buddha was born to an aristocratic Kshatriya (Pali: khattiya ) family called Gotama (Sanskrit: Gautama), who were part of

400-512: A "true historical memory" of the events approximately 60 years prior if the Short Chronology for the Buddha's lifetime is accepted (but he also points out that such a text was originally intended more as hagiography than as an exact historical record of events). John S. Strong sees certain biographical fragments in the canonical texts preserved in Pāli, as well as Chinese, Tibetan and Sanskrit as

500-567: A common threefold plot schema which contains: In the jātaka found in the Suttapitaka , which are almost always in prose, the Buddha is almost always depicted as a person of high rank in a past life (and not an animal). Some of these also include past lives of some of the Buddha's disciples. One famous example is the Pali Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra , which includes the story of Mahāsudarśana. Unlike Sutra collections, Vinaya sources like

600-507: A dramatic narrative about the life of the young Gotama as a prince and his existential troubles. They depict his father Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka). This is unlikely, as many scholars think that Śuddhodana was merely a Shakya aristocrat ( khattiya ), and that the Shakya republic was not a hereditary monarchy. The more egalitarian gaṇasaṅgha form of government, as

700-593: A historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes further, stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true. Legendary biographies like the Pali Buddhavaṃsa and the Sanskrit Jātakamālā depict the Buddha's (referred to as " bodhisattva " before his awakening) career as spanning hundreds of lifetimes before his last birth as Gautama. Many of these previous lives are narrated in

800-668: A later date. These include the Buddhacarita , Lalitavistara Sūtra , Mahāvastu , and the Nidānakathā . Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa in the first century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna / Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition

900-538: A lifespan of about 80 years. According to these chronicles, Asoka was crowned in 326 BCE, which gives Buddha's lifespan as 624–544 BCE, and are the accepted dates in Sri Lanka and South-East Asia. Alternatively, most scholars who also accept the long chronology but date Asoka's coronation around 268 BCE (based on Greek evidence) put the Buddha's lifespan later at 566–486 BCE. However, the "short chronology", from Indian sources and their Chinese and Tibetan translations, place

1000-435: A living tradition to this day. The Theravāda Jātakas comprise 547 poems, arranged roughly by an increasing number of verses. According to Professor von Hinüber, only the last 50 were intended to be intelligible by themselves, without commentary. The commentary gives stories in prose that it claims provide the context for the verses, and it is these stories that are of interest to folklorists . Alternative versions of some of

1100-653: A major difference here is that, while Mahavira gets a prediction of future enlightenment, he does not make a vow to become a jina in the future, unlike the bodhisattva Gautama. There is also no equivalent idea of a bodhisattva path in Jainism, in-spite of the existence of some narratives about Mahavira's past lives. A similar collection of Indian animal fables is the Hindu Pañcatantra , which has been dated to around 200 BCE. Some Buddhist jātakas were also adopted and retold by Islamic (and later Christian) authors, such as

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1200-528: A man and his whole body to a starving tigress who was about to eat her own cubs, and where 'kings, ministers, and peoples of all the kingdoms around vie with one another in making offerings'. A century later, Songyun writes of the same four sites and also mentions a whole area associated with the Vessantara-jātaka . Numerous Indian Buddhist archeological sites contain illustrations of Jātakas, and thus they are important artistic sources for Jātakas. Some of

1300-523: A political alternative to Indian monarchies, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas , where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism . The day of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak and the day he got conceived as Poson . Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India as he

1400-459: Is "immeasurable", "inscrutable", "hard to fathom", and "not apprehended". A list of other epithets is commonly seen together in canonical texts and depicts some of his perfected qualities: The Pali Canon also contains numerous other titles and epithets for the Buddha, including: All-seeing, All-transcending sage, Bull among men, The Caravan leader, Dispeller of darkness, The Eye, Foremost of charioteers, Foremost of those who can cross, King of

1500-515: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Buddhist text -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama , most commonly referred to as the Buddha ( lit.   ' the awakened one ' ), was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia , during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism . According to Buddhist legends, he

1600-460: Is a highly sophisticated poem which makes use of various Sanskrit literary devices. The Jātakamālā was quite influential and was imitated by later authors who wrote their own jātakamālās , mainly Haribhaṭṭa and Gopadatta. These works are all written in a classical Sanskrit genre known as campū, which is a blend of prose and verse in various meters. The jātakamālās all also use the six perfections (pāramitā) as their main framework. The influence of

1700-507: Is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra , and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa . Scholars are hesitant to make claims about

1800-443: Is believed to have been born on a full moon day. According to later biographical legends, during the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode, analyzed the child for the "32 marks of a great man" and then announced that he would either become a great king ( chakravartin ) or a great religious leader. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read

1900-406: Is not always the central character of all these stories and sometimes only plays a minor role. Other recurring characters include important disciples of the Buddha , Devadatta (generally as a villain ) and members of Gautama's family, like his wife Yasodharā and son Rāhula . Another important element of the stories are the various Buddhist virtues, called perfections, that were cultivated by

2000-803: Is the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā of the Theravada school. 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 commentaries ( Atthakatha ) on this book. The tales are dated between 300 BCE and 400 CE. The Mahāsāṃghika Caitika sects from the Āndhra region also had Jātakas as part of their canon and they are known to have rejected some of

2100-431: Is the masculine form of budh (बुध् ), "to wake, be awake, observe, heed, attend, learn, become aware of, to know, be conscious again", "to awaken" " 'to open up' (as does a flower)", "one who has awakened from the deep sleep of ignorance and opened his consciousness to encompass all objects of knowledge". It is not a personal name, but a title for those who have attained bodhi (awakening, enlightenment). Buddhi ,

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2200-506: Is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa , Uttar Pradesh, in present-day India, or Tilaurakot , in present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 24 kilometres (15 mi) apart. In the mid-3rd century BCE the Emperor Ashoka determined that Lumbini was Gautama's birthplace and thus installed a pillar there with the inscription: "...this is where

2300-539: The Aryan society of the western Ganges basin. According to Stein and Burton, "[t]he gods of the brahmanical sacrificial cult were not rejected so much as ignored by Buddhists and their contemporaries." Jainism and Buddhism opposed the social stratification of Brahmanism, and their egalitarism prevailed in the cities of the middle Ganges basin. This "allowed Jains and Buddhists to engage in trade more easily than Brahmans, who were forced to follow strict caste prohibitions." In

2400-672: The Avadānakalpalatā. There are numerous sources for classic or canonical Jātaka tales, including: Within the Pali tradition, there are also many non-canonical Jātakas of later composition (some dated even to the 19th century) but these are treated as a separate category of literature from the "official" Jātaka stories that have been more or less formally canonized from at least the 5th century — as attested to in ample epigraphic and archaeological evidence, such as extant illustrations in bas relief from ancient temple walls. Apocryphal Jātakas of

2500-721: The Jatakas , which consists of 547 stories. The format of a Jataka typically begins by telling a story in the present which is then explained by a story of someone's previous life. Besides imbuing the pre-Buddhist past with a deep karmic history, the Jatakas also serve to explain the bodhisattva's (the Buddha-to-be) path to Buddhahood. In biographies like the Buddhavaṃsa , this path is described as long and arduous, taking "four incalculable ages" ( asamkheyyas ). In these legendary biographies,

2600-876: The Mahayana sutras . Buddhism spread beyond the Indian subcontinent, evolving into a variety of traditions and practices, represented by Theravada and Mahayana. While Buddhism declined in India, and mostly disappeared after the 8th century CE due to a lack of popular and economic support, Buddhism is more prominent in Southeast and East Asia. According to Donald Lopez Jr., "... he tended to be known as either Buddha or Sakyamuni in China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet, and as either Gotama Buddha or Samana Gotama ('the ascetic Gotama') in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia." Buddha , "Awakened One" or "Enlightened One",

2700-633: The Mahāvastu . In the Sandaka Sutta , the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" ( abhijñā ). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on

2800-721: The Pali Text Society (Bristol). There are also numerous English translations of selections and individual stories from various sources. Some of the main translations of jātakas available in English include: Stories which are similar to the jātakas are also found in Jainism , which has stories focused on Mahavira's path to enlightenment in previous lives. The Jain stories include Mahavira's numerous forms of rebirth, such as animals as well as encounters with past liberated beings ( jinas ) which predict Mahavira's future enlightenment. However,

2900-632: The Second Urbanisation , in which the Ganges Basin was settled and cities grew, in which egalitarianism prevailed. According to Thapar, the Buddha's teachings were "also a response to the historical changes of the time, among which were the emergence of the state and the growth of urban centres". While the Buddhist mendicants renounced society, they lived close to the villages and cities, depending for alms-givings on lay supporters. According to Dyson,

3000-515: The Shakyas , a tribe of rice-farmers living near the modern border of India and Nepal. His father Śuddhodana was "an elected chief of the Shakya clan ", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. The early Buddhist texts contain very little information about the birth and youth of Gotama Buddha. Later biographies developed

3100-680: The Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist canons . They were some of the first texts to be translated into Chinese. Kāng Sēnghuì (who worked in Nanking c. 247) was one of the first Chinese translators of Jātakas. Perhaps his most influential translation is the Scripture of the Collection of the Six Perfections. The various Indian Buddhist schools had different collections of jātakas. The largest known collection

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3200-461: The Vinaya . In spite of this main intended audience, their simple format also made them easily adaptable for other uses. Thus, they were repackaged as artistic entertainment and teaching devices for laypersons, as parittas (protective chants) and as chronicle (vamsa) literature . Straube also notes that the rock caves of Ajanta and Bagh were inhabited by monks and it was them who ordered and directed

3300-547: The Vinayavastu contain more varied jātakas, including ones in which the Buddha is depicted as an animal. Many jātaka contain elements of both verse and prose. According to Martin Straube "the division into canonical verses and postcanonical prose points to the old Indian narrative form of ākhyāna, which has a fixed wording of the stanzas only, whereas the actual story is to be shaped anew during each oral performance." The plots of

3400-459: The avadāna , which is a story of any karmically significant deed (whether by a bodhisattva or otherwise) and its result. According to Naomi Appleton, some tales (such as those found in the second and fourth decade of the Avadānaśataka ) can be classified as both a jātaka and an avadāna. Jātaka tales may be quite ancient. The term appears as part of a schema of Buddhist literary forms called

3500-427: The different Buddhist schools . These texts are transmitted in various Indian dialects and stem from a prior oral tradition." Furthermore, while these texts cannot be dated in a precise manner, "the fact that many narratives are passed on in almost identical form within the canons of the different schools shows that they date back to the time before the schisms between the schools took place." Sarah Shaw, writing on

3600-435: The jātaka range from simpler Aesopic style animal tales to longer more complex dramas which resemble epics or novels with intricate dialogue, characters and poetry. Despite the diversity of the plots and characters, they are all unified by the character of the heroic bodhisattva Gautama (whose identity is generally only revealed at the end of the story) and his struggles on the quest for awakening . In spite of this, Gautama

3700-555: The jātakamālās can be seen in the Ajanta Cave complex, where illustrations of Jātakas are inscribed with quotes from Āryaśūra, with script datable to the sixth century. The Jātakamālā was also translated into Chinese in 434 CE. Borobudur , a massive 9th century Buddhist site in Java , contains depictions of all 34 Jatakas from the Jātakamālā . Two other Sanskrit authors associated with

3800-610: The "four great stupas" as well as stupas in Pushkalavati , Mangalura, Hadda Mountain, and Sarvadattaan. According to Naomi Appleton, the "four great stupas" visited by Faxian (337–422 CE) are: the first (in 'So-ho-to') was where the Buddha ransomed the life of a dove with his own flesh; the second (in Gandhāra ) was where he gave away his eyes to a blind beggar; and the third and fourth (in Takshaśilā ) were where he gave away his head to

3900-420: The 32 major and 80 minor marks of a "great man", and the idea that the Buddha could live for as long as an aeon if he wished (see DN 16). The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of

4000-526: The 5th century BCE. The community, though describable as a small republic, was probably an oligarchy , with his father as the elected chieftain or oligarch. The Shakyas were widely considered to be non- Vedic (and, hence impure) in Brahminic texts; their origins remain speculative and debated. Bronkhorst terms this culture, which grew alongside Aryavarta without being affected by the flourish of Brahminism, as Greater Magadha . The Buddha's tribe of origin,

4100-443: The Buddha character intervenes to resolve all the problems and bring about a happy ending . The Jātaka genre is based on the idea that the Buddha was able to recollect all his past lives and thus could use these memories to tell a story and illustrate his teachings. For the Buddhist traditions, the jātakas illustrate the many lives, acts and spiritual practices which are required on the long path to Buddhahood . They also illustrate

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4200-494: The Buddha commonly used when referring to himself or other Buddhas in the Pāli Canon . The exact meaning of the term is unknown, but it is often thought to mean either "one who has thus gone" ( tathā-gata ), "one who has thus come" ( tathā-āgata ), or sometimes "one who has thus not gone" ( tathā-agata ). This is interpreted as signifying that the Tathāgata is beyond all coming and going—beyond all transitory phenomena . A tathāgata

4300-526: The Buddha must have been acquainted. Śāriputra and Moggallāna , two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the sceptic. The Pāli canon frequently depicts Buddha engaging in debate with the adherents of rival schools of thought. There is philological evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Rāmaputta , were historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. Thus, Buddha

4400-601: The Buddha taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism, leading to freedom from ignorance , craving , rebirth, and suffering . His core teachings are summarized in the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path , a training of the mind that includes ethical training and kindness toward others , and meditative practices such as sense restraint , mindfulness , dhyana (meditation proper). Another key element of his teachings are

4500-523: The Buddha's birth at 180 years before Asoka's coronation and death 100 years before the coronation, still about 80 years. Following the Greek sources of Asoka's coronation as 268 BCE, this dates the Buddha's lifespan even later as 448–368 BCE. Most historians in the early 20th century use the earlier dates of 563–483 BCE, differing from the long chronology based on Greek evidence by just three years. More recently, there are attempts to put his death midway between

4600-415: The Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty-five-year career as a teacher. Traditional biographies of Gautama often include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara ) and perfected being who is unencumbered by

4700-427: The Buddha's lifespan was c.477–397 BCE, it can be estimated that Bimbisara was reigning c.457–405 BCE, and Ajatashatru was reigning c.405–373 BCE. According to the Buddhist tradition, Shakyamuni Buddha was a Shakya , a sub-Himalayan ethnicity and clan of north-eastern region of the Indian subcontinent. The Shakya community was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the eastern Indian subcontinent in

4800-621: The Buddha, sage of the Śākyas ( Śākyamuni ), was born." According to later biographies such as the Mahavastu and the Lalitavistara , his mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a princess from Devdaha , the ancient capital of the Koliya Kingdom (what is now the Rupandehi District of Nepal ). Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that

4900-416: The Buddha, very little biographical material about Gautama's own life has been recorded. Jātaka tales also assimilate many traditional Indian fables and folklore that are not specifically Buddhist. As the genre spread outside of India, it also drew on local folk tales. The Mahayana author Asaṅga provides a working definition of jātaka in his Śrāvakabhūmi : What is jātaka ? That which relates

5000-577: The Buddhist community in the Vinaya , his codes for monastic practice, and the Sutta Piṭaka , a compilation of teachings based on his discourses. These were passed down in Middle Indo-Aryan dialects through an oral tradition . Later generations composed additional texts, such as systematic treatises known as Abhidharma , biographies of the Buddha, collections of stories about his past lives known as Jataka tales , and additional discourses, i.e.,

5100-598: The Chinese pilgrim Yijing , who visited India in the 7th century, jātaka plays were performed 'throughout the five countries of India'. This culture of performance spread to other regions as well. In Tibet, the Viśvāntara-jātaka was transformed into a popular play called the Dri med kun ldan . Other popular jataka plays include Nor bzaṅ or Sudhana and the story of Prince Maṇicūḍa (Lokānanda). In Theravada countries, several of

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5200-593: The Dharma ( Dharmaraja ), Kinsman of the Sun, Helper of the World ( Lokanatha ), Lion ( Siha ), Lord of the Dhamma, Of excellent wisdom ( Varapañña ), Radiant One, Torchbearer of mankind, Unsurpassed doctor and surgeon, Victor in battle, and Wielder of power. Another epithet, used at inscriptions throughout South and Southeast Asia, is Maha sramana , "great sramana " (ascetic, renunciate). On

5300-561: The Emperor's pilgrimage to Lumbini as the Buddha's birthplace, calling him the Buddha Shakyamuni ‍ ( Brahmi script : 𑀩𑀼𑀥 𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻 Bu-dha Sa-kya-mu-nī , "Buddha, Sage of the Shakyas"). Śākyamuni, Sakyamuni, or Shakyamuni ( Sanskrit : शाक्यमुनि , [ɕaːkjɐmʊnɪ] ) means "Sage of the Shakyas ". Tathāgata ( Pali ; Pali: [tɐˈtʰaːɡɐtɐ] ) is a term

5400-479: The Emperor's pilgrimage to Lumbini as the Buddha's birthplace, calling him the Buddha Shakyamuni ( Brahmi script : 𑀩𑀼𑀥 𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻 Bu-dha Sa-kya-mu-nī , "Buddha, Sage of the Shakyas"). Another one of his edicts ( Minor Rock Edict No. 3 ) mentions the titles of several Dhamma texts (in Buddhism, "dhamma" is another word for "dharma"), establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by

5500-458: The Ganges basin was settled from the north-west and the south-east, as well as from within, "[coming] together in what is now Bihar (the location of Pataliputra )". The Ganges basin was densely forested, and the population grew when new areas were deforestated and cultivated. The society of the middle Ganges basin lay on "the outer fringe of Aryan cultural influence", and differed significantly from

5600-478: The Jain tirthankara . There is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies, as "Buddhist scholars [...] have mostly given up trying to understand the historical person." The earliest versions of Buddhist biographical texts that we have already contain many supernatural, mythical, or legendary elements. In the 19th century, some scholars simply omitted these from their accounts of

5700-621: The Pali Jātaka , states that the earliest part of the Jātaka , the verse portions, are "considered amongst the very earliest part of the Pali tradition and date from the fifth century BCE" while "the later parts were incorporated during the period up to the third century CE." According to A. K. Warder , jātaka are the precursors to the various legendary biographies of the Buddha, which were composed at later dates. Although many jātaka were written from an early period, which describe previous lives of

5800-599: The Pali Buddhist canon, such as those belonging to the Paññāsa Jātaka collection, have been adapted to fit local culture in certain South East Asian countries and have been retold with amendments to the plots to better reflect Buddhist morals. According to Kate Crosby, "there is also a collection of Jātaka of ten future Buddhas, beginning with Metteyya , which though less well-known today clearly circulated widely in

5900-509: The Pali Jataka Commentary ( Jātakaṭṭhakathā ) and the Sanskrit Jātakamālā is how the Buddha-to-be had to practice several "perfections" ( pāramitā ) to reach Buddhahood. The Jatakas also sometimes depict negative actions done in previous lives by the bodhisattva, which explain difficulties he experienced in his final life as Gautama. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini , now in modern-day Nepal, and raised in Kapilavastu . The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu

6000-827: The Pali tradition: Āryaśūra's Jātakamālā , a very influential Sanskrit work that was depicted throughout the Buddhist world, contains the following Jātakas (which teach various virtues): Jātakas have been important as a way to spread Buddhist teachings and they were widely used as part of sermons, rituals, festivals, and various forms of art. Kate Crosby writes that they have been depicted in such varied forms as "apocryphal literature, vernacular retellings, performance, temple art, temporary street and festival art, films, comics, and cartoons." The sponsorship of Jātaka recitations, copyings and art eventually grew to be seen as an act which generated merit for lay Buddhists. These acts are more common around important festivals like Vesak . The earliest archeological findings which depict Jātakas are

6100-522: The Shakyas, seems to have had non-Vedic religious practices which persist in Buddhism, such as the veneration of trees and sacred groves, and the worship of tree spirits (yakkhas) and serpent beings (nagas). They also seem to have built burial mounds called stupas. Tree veneration remains important in Buddhism today, particularly in the practice of venerating Bodhi trees. Likewise, yakkas and nagas have remained important figures in Buddhist religious practices and mythology. The Buddha's lifetime coincided with

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6200-425: The Theravada world." There are also late compositions based on classic Jātakas, such as the Kavsiḷumiṇa , a poem based on the Kusa Jātaka in archaic Sinhala written King Parākkamabāhu II (13th century) and the Mahachat kham luang , the 'royal version' of the Vessantara jātaka, which was composed at the court of King Paramatrailokanātha (c. 1482). The art of putting classic Jātakas into Thai verse remains

6300-516: The Theravāda Jātakas which dated past the time of King Ashoka . The Caitikas claimed that their own Jātakas represented the original collection before the Buddhist tradition split into various lineages. In the Northern Buddhist tradition , Jātakas eventually came to be composed in classical Sanskrit . Perhaps the most influential and important Sanskrit Jātaka text is the Jātakamālā ( Garland of Jātakas ) of Āryaśūra which includes 34 Jātaka stories. This work differs from earlier sources in that it

6400-433: The austere practices and bodhisattva practices of the Blessed One in various past births: this is called jātaka . The idea that jātaka are taught in order to illustrate the bodhisattva path is an ancient one and is contained in sources like the Mahavastu , which states: "the supreme ones [Buddhas], who are skilled in jātakas and other doctrines, teach the course of practice of a bodhisattva." Many jātakas are told with

6500-427: The basis of philological evidence, Indologist and Pāli expert Oskar von Hinüber says that some of the Pāli suttas have retained very archaic place-names, syntax, and historical data from close to the Buddha's lifetime, including the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta which contains a detailed account of the Buddha's final days. Hinüber proposes a composition date of no later than 350–320 BCE for this text, which would allow for

6600-528: The best examples being the illustrations found at Ananda Temple (which depicts 554 tales). Jātaka tales are often associated with specific locations. Originally, this applied to specific places in India, which served as Buddhist pilgrimage sites . Later traditions expanded this to include other places throughout the Buddhist world. According to Naomi Appleton, the fact that Jātaka tales lack specific references to specific places allowed them to be easily transported and re-localized. This flexibility contributed to

6700-464: The bodhisattva Gautama throughout his previous lives, and which serve as the lessons taught by the jātakas. Other jātakas, such as those found in the Buddhavaṃsa ( Chronicle of Buddhas ), focus on Gautama's meeting, serving and venerating past Buddhas and serve to place his bodhisattva path in a chronology of past Buddhas. These stories generally focus on acts of devotion to past Buddhas and how this generates much merit which many positive outcomes in

6800-429: The bodhisattva goes through many different births (animal and human), is inspired by his meeting of past Buddhas , and then makes a series of resolves or vows ( pranidhana ) to become a Buddha himself. Then he begins to receive predictions by past Buddhas. One of the most popular of these stories is his meeting with Dipankara Buddha , who gives the bodhisattva a prediction of future Buddhahood. Another theme found in

6900-414: The concepts of the five skandhas and dependent origination , describing how all dharmas (both mental states and concrete 'things') come into being, and cease to be, depending on other dharmas , lacking an existence on their own svabhava ). A couple of centuries after his death, he came to be known by the title Buddha , which means 'Awakened One' or 'Enlightened One'. His teachings were compiled by

7000-401: The culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures , and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as

7100-425: The earliest Buddhist texts, the nikāyas and āgamas , the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience ( sabbaññu ) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent ( lokottara ) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo , ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as

7200-517: The earliest material. These include texts such as the "Discourse on the Noble Quest" ( Ariyapariyesanā-sutta ) and its parallels in other languages. No written records about Gautama were found from his lifetime or from the one or two centuries thereafter. But from the middle of the 3rd century BCE, several Edicts of Ashoka (reigned c. 268 to 232 BCE) mention the Buddha and Buddhism. Particularly, Ashoka 's Lumbini pillar inscription commemorates

7300-705: The first century BCE to the third century CE. Early canonical sources include the Ariyapariyesana Sutta ( MN 26), the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta ( DN 16), the Mahāsaccaka-sutta (MN 36), the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123), which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātaka tales retell previous lives of Gautama as

7400-590: The flourishing of influential śramaṇa schools of thought like Ājīvika , Cārvāka , Jainism , and Ajñana . The Brahmajala Sutta records sixty-two such schools of thought. In this context, a śramaṇa refers to one who labours, toils or exerts themselves (for some higher or religious purpose). It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira , Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla , Ajita Kesakambalī , Pakudha Kaccāyana , and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta , as recorded in Samaññaphala Sutta , with whose viewpoints

7500-608: The formation and communication of ideas about buddhahood , karma and merit, and the place of the Buddha in relation to other buddhas and bodhisattvas ." According to the traditional view found in the Pali Jātakanidana , a prologue to the stories, Gautama made a vow to become a Buddha in the future, in front past Buddha Dipankara . He then spent many lifetimes on the path to Buddhahood, and the stories from these lives are recorded as Jātakas. Jātakas are closely related to (and often overlap with) another genre of Buddhist narrative,

7600-413: The future. A smaller number of jātakas illustrate various mistakes or bad actions that the bodhisattva committed in a past life (and the subsequent karmic retribution) and thus demonstrate the bodhisattva's past imperfections. Regarding the intended audience of these texts, Martin Straube notes that even though there is a widespread view that jātakas arose due to monks "catering to the needs and tastes of

7700-546: The future. All gave similar predictions. Kondañña , the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha . Jataka tales In these stories, the future Buddha may appear as a king, an outcaste, a deva , an animal—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

7800-751: The genre. One such late text is Kṣemendra's (c. 1036–1065) Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā (Wish-Fulfilling Creeper Consisting in Avadānas of the Bodhisattva), a unique jātaka text written completely in verse. This work was influential on the Tibetan tradition. Jātaka are also important in Tibetan Buddhism . They were one of the main sources of teaching and study for the popular Kadam school and later Tibetan authors produced abridged collections such as Karmapa Rangjung Dorje 's Hundred Births and Padma Chopel's summary of

7900-563: The great qualities or perfections of the Buddha (such as generosity ) and teach Buddhist moral lessons, particularly within the framework of karma and rebirth . Jātaka stories have also been illustrated in Buddhist architecture throughout the Buddhist world and they continue to be an important element in popular Buddhist art . Some of the earliest such illustrations can be found at Sanchi and Bharhut . According to Naomi Appleton, Jātaka collections also may have played "an important role in

8000-502: The historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most of them accept that the Buddha lived, taught, and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada , and during the reign of Bimbisara (his friend, protector, and ruler of the Magadha empire); and died during the early years of the reign of Ajatashatru (who was the successor of Bimbisara), thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira ,

8100-407: The illiterate lay practitioners of Buddhism as propagandistic means of preaching or converting" there is no historical evidence for this. Instead, the opposite might be true, since "the prose portions of the Pali jātakas not infrequently have as their audience monks and nuns, who sometimes reach high levels of spiritual realization after listening to a jātaka story." Naomi Appleton, in her analysis of

8200-553: The illustrations found in the on the Bharhut stupa railing as well as at Sanchi (c. late 2nd – 1st century BCE), which also include inscriptions. After this, Jātakas appear at many Buddhist sites, like at Ajanta . Similar Jātaka tales are found in murals of Silk Road sites of the pre-Tang period (ca. 421–640 C.E.), such as at Kucha . They are also found in early Southeast Asian sites, especially at Bagan sites. Burmese Buddhism has an extensive tradition of Jātaka illustration, one of

8300-619: The jātaka genre are Kumāralāta (2nd century CE), author of the Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā Dṛṣṭāntapaṅkti ( Collection of Examples, Adorned with an Artistic Arrangement ) and Saṅghasena's (date unknown) Pusa benyuan jing (菩薩本縁經; Sūtra of the Bodhisattva's Avadānas ). Both works exist only in Chinese translation (but there are Sanskrit fragments). These texts are a kind of predecessor to the Jātakamālā and are less poetically sophisticated. Later Sanskrit authors continued to write in

8400-740: The jātaka murals found there. There is also evidence from inscriptions on old stūpas at various Indian sites (such as Sanchi and Bharhut ) with jātaka motifs which indicate that they were built due to the patronage of monks and nuns, some of them of high rank such as bhāṇaka (reciter). Some scholars have also concluded that Jātaka reciters were part of their own division of reciters. Jātakas were originally transmitted in prakrit languages and various forms of Sanskrit (from classical to Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit ). They were then translated into central Asian languages (such as Khotanese, Tocharian, Uighur, and Sogdian) . Various jātaka stories and source texts were also translated into Chinese and Tibetan for

8500-513: The lasting popularity of the Jātakas. This tradition of associating Jātaka tales with regions outside of India played an important part in the promotion and legitimisation of Buddhism in these regions. Thus, many stupas in Nepal and northern India are said to mark locations from the Jātaka tales. Chinese pilgrims like Xuanzang and Faxian reported several of these and discussed the stories connected with them. Sites discussed by these figures include

8600-493: The life, so that "the image projected was of a Buddha who was a rational, socratic teacher—a great person perhaps, but a more or less ordinary human being". More recent scholars tend to see such demythologisers as remythologisers, "creating a Buddha that appealed to them, by eliding one that did not". The dates of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Within the Eastern Buddhist tradition of China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan,

8700-425: The long chronology's 480s BCE and the short chronology's 360s BCE, so circa 410 BCE. At a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not been accepted by all historians. The dating of Bimbisara and Ajatashatru also depends on the long or short chronology. In

8800-400: The long chrononology, Bimbisara reigned c.  558  – c.  492 BCE , and died 492 BCE, while Ajatashatru reigned c.  492  – c.  460 BCE . In the short chronology Bimbisara reigned c.  400 BCE , while Ajatashatru died between c.  380 BCE and 330 BCE. According to historian K. T. S. Sarao , a proponent of the Short Chronology wherein

8900-796: The longer tales such as " The Twelve Sisters " and the Vessantara Jataka are still performed in dance, theatre, puppetry, and formal (quasi-ritual) recitation. Such celebrations are associated with particular holidays on the lunar calendar used by Thailand , Myanmar , Sri Lanka and Laos . The recitation of the Vessantara Jataka remains an important ceremony remains an important ceremony in Theravada countries today. The standard Pali collection of jātakas, with canonical text embedded, has been translated by E. B. Cowell and others, originally published in six volumes by Cambridge University Press (1895–1907) and reprinted in three volumes, by

9000-575: The main sites include: Other ancient sites outside of India which contain Jataka illustrations include Borobudor , Dunhuang (the Mogao caves ), Polonnoruwa , Anuradhapura , Bagan city , and Nakhon Pathom . Jataka illustrations (especially of the last 10 stories of the canonical Pali collection) are widespread in the Theravada Buddhist world, adorning many temples, wats and key sites. According to

9100-536: The most light", and comes from the fact that Kshatriya clans adopted the names of their house priests. While the term Buddha is used in the Agamas and the Pali Canon, the oldest surviving written records of the term Buddha is from the middle of the 3rd century BCE, when several Edicts of Ashoka (reigned c.  269 –232 BCE) mention the Buddha and Buddhism. Ashoka 's Lumbini pillar inscription commemorates

9200-460: The mundane world. In the Mahāvastu , over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supramundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". As noted by Andrew Skilton, the Buddha was often described as being superhuman, including descriptions of him having

9300-473: The nine component genres of the Buddha's teaching ( navaṅga-buddhasāsana ), and depictions of them appear in early Indian art (as early as the second century BCE). They are also widely represented in ancient Indian inscriptions . According to Straube, "the presumably oldest specimens of fully elaborated narratives are dispersed throughout the Vinayapiṭakas and Sūtrapiṭakas of the canonical collections of

9400-668: The power to "form and retain concepts, reason, discern, judge, comprehend, understand", is the faculty which discerns truth ( satya ) from falsehood. The name of his clan was Gautama (Pali: Gotama). His given name, "Siddhārtha" (the Sanskrit form; the Pali rendering is "Siddhattha"; in Tibetan it is "Don grub"; in Chinese "Xidaduo"; in Japanese "Shiddatta/Shittatta"; in Korean "Siltalta") means "He Who Achieves His Goal". The clan name of Gautama means "descendant of Gotama", "Gotama" meaning "one who has

9500-444: The second and fourth decade of the Avadānaśataka , notes that both sets of stories "assume a monastic audience." Likewise, Kate Crosby writes that "the format of the Jātaka in fact suggests that their original inclusion in the canonical collection was primarily for the benefit of monks." Crosby notes that many of these stories are connected with monastic behavior and decorum, some of them are also meant to illustrate specific rules in

9600-600: The stories can be found in another book of the Pali Canon, the Cariyapitaka , and a number of individual stories can be found scattered around other books of the Canon. Many of the stories and motifs found in the Jātaka such as the Rabbit in the Moon of the Śaśajātaka (Jataka Tales: no.316), are found in numerous other languages and media. The following list includes some important jātakas of

9700-859: The time of the Maurya era . These texts may be the precursor of the Pāli Canon . "Sakamuni" is also mentioned in a relief of Bharhut , dated to c.  100 BCE , in relation with his illumination and the Bodhi tree , with the inscription Bhagavato Sakamunino Bodho ("The illumination of the Blessed Sakamuni"). The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts , found in Gandhara (corresponding to modern northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan) and written in Gāndhārī , they date from

9800-519: The traditional date for Buddha's death was 949 BCE, but according to the Ka-tan system of the Kalachakra tradition, Buddha's death was about 833 BCE. Buddhist texts present two chronologies which have been used to date the lifetime of the Buddha. The "long chronology", from Sri Lankese chronicles, states the Buddha was born 298 years before Asoka 's coronation and died 218 years before the coronation, thus

9900-650: Was born in Lumbini , in what is now Nepal , to royal parents of the Shakya clan, but renounced his home life to live as a wandering ascetic. After leading a life of mendicancy , asceticism , and meditation, he attained nirvana at Bodh Gaya in what is now India . The Buddha then wandered through the lower Indo-Gangetic Plain , teaching and building a monastic order . Buddhist tradition holds he died in Kushinagar and reached parinirvana ("final release from conditioned existence"). According to Buddhist tradition,

10000-414: Was just one of the many śramaṇa philosophers of that time. In an era where holiness of person was judged by their level of asceticism, Buddha was a reformist within the śramaṇa movement, rather than a reactionary against Vedic Brahminism. Coningham and Young note that both Jains and Buddhists used stupas, while tree shrines can be found in both Buddhism and Hinduism. The rise of Buddhism coincided with

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