As we know, visual narratives in the early Buddhist art of the Indian sub-continent revolve around two sets of stories, the stories connected with the Great Events in the lifetime of Lord Buddha and the worries of his Previous Lives, familiarly known as Jatakas. The early Buddhists laid much emphasis on the Previous Lives, for, the knowledge about previous existences was the first knowledge obtained by the Buddha in the process of his Enlightenment. The Buddhists believe that the Buddha himself narrated the stories in his lifetime. Candidly speaking, originally, the Jatakas were a collection of popular stories, folktales, and fables, which were adapted and given a Buddhist guise. Thus, early Buddhism acquired a simple and effective means of popularizing the faith in society. For example, a folk tale depicted on the wall of a cave site at Kathotia, Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh, portrays a male carrying a portage yoke with two people caught in the forest and hanging upside down from either end, perhaps for supplying human flesh to his tribal head. Further, the person holds a large knife in one hand and in the other a sword, girdled in the middle. The above cave painting of Proto-historic times reminds the main episode of the Maha Sutasoma Jataka story, wherein, the hunters catch the men in the forest and supply human meat to the exiled cannibal king. , if we study the folk tales and fables of pre-Buddhist times, we can know how folk stories were adapted with certain changes, by Buddhists in their art and literature.
Some scholars say that many of the ancient folk stories which are charming and purely native were originally composed in Kashmir about 200 B.C. and included in the work called Panchatantra. The majority of the actors in these stories are animals. The above hypothesis floated by Dr. Hertel is more convincing and acceptable, because, many of the stories depicted in the panels of the stupa at Bharhut, (2nd C.B.C) represent animals, birds, and other small creatures, which are visualized and made to speak like human beings. More the Bharhut School of Art is the first indigenous art of the Indian subcontinent. Thus the hypothesis made by Dr. Hertel is supported by the sculptural art at Bharhut. Originally the folk stories in the Finchotantra are meant to propagate virtues among people of all ages. The Buddhists might have added Buddhist ideology or philosophy to some of these folk stories and named them Jataka stories and incorporated them into their canonical texts.
Scholars opined that in South India, the text Punchatantra was composed by Vishnusarma and later by Vasubhaga around 1" C.A.D. Some of the stories are also found in Brihatkatha of Gunadhya of 1" C.A.D. in the Puisachi language. Later on the Ganga king Durvinita who ruled Karnataka (529 A.D) translated this into Sanskrit. These stories are portrayed on the temple walls along with narrative themes of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, by the Chalukyas of Badami, the Rastrakutas of Malkhed, the Gangas of Talakad, the Chalukyas of Kalyana, the Hoyasalas of Dvarasamudra, who ruled Kannadadesa and the west coast right from 6" C.A.D. onwards. Because of its importance, the work Panchatantra was translated into the Persian language by the court physician of the king Khusro Nanshirvan and into Arabic in 750 AD by Abdulla, the son of Alicaf under the title of Khalila-va-damna and later on in different languages. It was again composed in the Kannada language in 1031 AD by Durga Simha based on Vaubhaga's tradition, For the first time in 1859. Theodor Benfey, the German Sanskrit scholar published a literal and true translation, into the German language of the Kashmir recension of the Panchatantra collection though the Sutrit version consisted of eighty-four stories which were published earlier in Germ language, Subsequently in 1924 Panchatantra in English translation was made available by Stanely Rice and Arthur W Ryder, the well known American Oriental scholars. The text Falchantantra existed in different languages right from 2 C.I.C.
According to tradition, there were 550 Jataka stories, originally composed in Pali, which were taken to Ceylon by Mahendra, son of Asoka the Great, in 250 B.C. Buddhaghosa in 5th century A. D retranslated the commentary into Pali It is through this commentary that the text of the Jatakas has come down to us, Dr. Fausboll who categorized the text into three major component elements, viz., the tale, the frame, and the verbal interpretation, first edited the text of commentary. Considering it the oldest, most complete, and most important collection of folklore, Rhys Davids translated it in the year 1880. Later on, a host of scholars like W. R. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, and R. A. Neil worked on it and the first volume o translation appeared in 1895 under the editorship of E. B. Cowell.
In the same century, Kern published Janakamala (4th century A.D) in the year 1891. Afterward, 1. 5. Speyer in the year 1895 translated Aryasura's Jatakamala (garland of birth stories) into English. He says that Aryasura's Jarakamala has higher pretension and uses a kind of Kavya style, a work of art, by the north Indian Buddhists, whereas the Jataka in Pali is the simple prose style, followed by the Buddhists of South India. Similarly, three decades later, the Royal Asiatic Society published the translation of another great work namely Avadanakalpalata (11th century A.D.), composed by Ksemendra, the Kashmir poet in the year 1920.
Whatever it may be, the Jataka stories are not only aimed at propagating the Buddha's teachings and doctrine, but also deal with a wide range of topics like politics, socio-economic conditions, evils in the temporary society, Government and its administration, functions of ministers, Judiciary, crime, and contemporary punishments, ambassadors and their conduct, and discipline besides trade and commerce.
Several scholars studied the Jataka literature from various angles. Richard Fick studied these Jatakat from the social point of view, keeping always in view, the caste and the priest. Roy Chaudhary studied these stories to draw the political history of ancient India. Rhys Davids and N.S. Subba Rao has studied and projected the economic conditions that prevailed during the early centuries of the Christian era. Beni Prasad in his work. The state in Ancient India exhaustively dealt with the administrative aspects. B.C Sen in his work, Studies in Jatakas have drawn political and administrative matters. Ratilal N. Mehta in his work, pre-Buddhist India, studied the Jatakas from several aspects such as political, and administrative. economic, social, and geographical survey of ancient India.
The epochal discovery of the sculptural Jataka panels in stone media by Sir Alexander Cunningham more than a century ago, at Bhathut, opened a new line of inquiry, which was continued by several scholars, especially Foucher and Barua.
