SihaDerana: Sri Lanka and Theravada Buddhism - Jathaka Stories
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The Jathaka Kathaa

Buried far deep in the annals of time is where our story must start, but our journey will, of a necessity, begin much closer to our own time. This is the beginning of the story of stories, one of the very foundations upon which Buddhism is hinged, and as such is not taken lightly by those who believe.

This is the beginning of our rendition of the 550 Jathaka Katha, or the 550 Past Life Stories of the Buddha.

According to the foundations of Theravada Buddhism (the teachings of the Buddha as prevalent among the Sinhala), a living being is a continuation of a never-ending cycle of life, with that living being passing from one life to another at the time of its “death”. This is generally known as reincarnation.

Thus, without exception each and every being living as of now, has gone through an eternity of lives. Buddha was one such human being.

Buddha, during his lifetime of 45 years as a Buddha, delivered many discourses to his disciples and followers in order to pass on the knowledge he gained from enlightenment.

The 550 Jathaka Katha was the result of such discourses given by the Buddha about his past lives. These occurred varyingly depending upon the subject at hand. Buddha, upon arriving at a gathering of his disciples would inquire as to what the topics under discussion were, before his arrival. If the matter at hand would benefit from it, Buddha would clarify matters using a narrative from one of his past lives.

He would bring to their attention things that happened in his previous births as a method of explaining the true nature of life, as applicable to the topic at hand.

These stories, carried down unwaveringly by Theravada Buddhist Sangha (Buddhist monks), from the time of Buddha himself, were later documented in the books containing Buddha’s teachings, the Tripitakaya. More precisely they are to be found in the Jathaka Pali in the Suthra Pitakaya scripted in Buddhas own words.

However, it is a sad truth that to translate these Jathaka Katha to another language is no easy task. Words and their meanings uttered in the Sinhala tongue have a tendency of changing to become more, and in many cases less, than what it truly means, when translated into another language.

The authors of this work have stayed as true as possible to the original works where possible, but language barriers do exist and where one might glean one impression of something in the original version of the 550 Jathaka Katha, the same meaning might be diluted or misrepresented in the translated version.

For those of you interested in learning more about the Buddha and his teachings, this link will take you to the pages that will be of help to you. For those of you interested in continuing this journey, you have merely to click on a story and you will be transported there.