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Jataka

American  
[jah-tuh-kuh] / ˈdʒɑ tə kə /

noun

Buddhism.
  1. a collection of fables, many concerning former lives of the Buddha.


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The venerable Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero, founder of the Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery in Sri Lanka, told me a story from the Jataka, an ancient book of poems about the Buddha's earlier lives.

From BBC • Jan. 31, 2016

The Ajanta murals tell the Jataka stories of the lives of the Buddha in images of supreme elegance and grace.

From BBC • Apr. 4, 2014

I realised that the greatest short story writer in South Asia was Buddha, where the stories of his previous lives were recounted as Jataka tales.

From The Guardian • May 14, 2013

The great Indian collection of symbolic stories known as Jataka Tales, or Buddhist Birth Stories, has been called "the oldest, most complete, and most important collection of folklore extant."

From Children's Literature A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes by Clippinger, Erle Elsworth

The Jataka tales, regarded as historic in the Third Century B. C., are the oldest collection of folk-lore extant.

From More Jataka Tales by Babbitt, E. C.