Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 23 · page 21 2101I would not do as I was told, So now I'm plucked, as you behold."102And the Pigeon rejoined with a third verse:103"You'll come to grief again, I know-- It is your nature to do so; If people make a dish of meat, 'Tis not for little birds to eat."104Then the Pigeon flew away, saying: "I can't live with this creature any longer."105And the Crow lay there groaning till he died.106Notes and References107The story literature of India is in a large measure the outcome of the moral revolution of the peninsula connected with the name of Gautama Buddha.108As the influence of his life and doctrines grew, a tendency arose to connect all the popular stories of India round the great teacher.109This could be easily effected owing to the wide spread of the belief in metempsychosis.110All that was told of the sages of the past could be interpreted of the Buddha by representing them as pre-incarnations of him.111Even with Fables, or beast-tales, this could be done, for the Hindoos were Darwinists long before Darwin, and regarded beasts as cousins of men and stages of development in the progress of the soul through the ages.112Thus, by identifying the Buddha with the heroes of all folk-tales and the chief characters in the beast-drolls, the Buddhists were enabled to incorporate the whole of the story-store of Hindostan in their sacred books, and enlist on their side the tale-telling instincts of men.113In making Buddha the centre figure of the popular literature of India, his followers also invented the Frame as a method of literary art.114The idea of connecting a number of disconnected stories familiar to us from _The Arabian Nights_, Boccaccio's _Decamerone_, Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, or even _Pickwick_, is directly traceable to the plan of making Buddha the central figure of India folk-literature.115Curiously enough, the earliest instance of this in Buddhist literature was intended to be a Decameron, ten tales of Buddha's previous births, told of each of the ten Perfections.116Asvagosha, the earlier Boccaccio, died when he had completed thirty-four of the Birth-Tales.117But other collections were made, and at last a corpus of the JATAKAS, or Birth-Tales of the Buddha, was carried over to Ceylon, possibly as early as the first introduction of Buddhism, 241 B.C.118There they have remained till the present day, and have at last been made accessible in a complete edition in the original Pali by Prof.119Fausböll.120These JATAKAS, as we now have them, are enshrined in a commentary on the _gathas_, or moral verses, written in Ceylon by one of Buddhaghosa's school in the fifth century A.D.121They invariably begin with a "Story of the Present," an incident in Buddha's life which calls up to him a "Story of the Past," a folk-tale in which he had played a part during one of his former incarnations.122Thus the fable of the Lion and the Crane, which opens the present collection, is introduced by a "Story of the Present" in the following words:--123"A service have we done thee" [the opening words of the _gatha_ or moral verse]. "124This the Master told while living at Jetavana concerning Devadatta's treachery.125Not only now, O Bhickkus, but in a former existence was Devadatta ungrateful.126And having said this he told a tale."127Then follows the tale as given above (pp.1281, 2), and the commentary concludes: "The Master, having given the lesson, summed up the Jataka thus: 'At that time, the Lion was Devadatta, and the Crane was I myself.'"129Similarly, with each story of the past the Buddha identifies himself, or is mentioned as identical with, the virtuous hero of the folk-tale.130These Jatakas are 550 in number, and have been reckoned to include some 2000 tales.131Some of these had been translated by Mr. Rhys-Davids (_Buddhist Birth Stories, I._, Trübner's Oriental Library, 1880), Prof.132Fausböll (_Five Jatakas_, Copenhagen), and Dr. R. Morris (_Folk-Lore Journal_, vols. ii.-v.).133A few exist sculptured on the earliest Buddhist Stupas.134Thus several of the circular figure designs on the reliefs from Amaravati, now on the grand staircase of the British Museum, represent Jatakas, or previous births of the Buddha.135Some of the Jatakas bear a remarkable resemblance to some of the most familiar FABLES OF ÆSOP.136So close is the resemblance, indeed, that it is impossible not to surmise an historical relation between the two.137What this relation is I have discussed at considerable length in the "History of the Æsopic Fable," which forms the introductory volume to my edition of Caxton's _Esope_ (London, D. Nutt, "Bibliothèque de Carabas," 1889).138In this place I can only roughly summarise my results.139I conjecture that a collection of fables existed in India before Buddha and independently of the Jatakas, and connected with the name of Kasyapa, who was afterwards made by the Buddhists into the latest of the twenty-seven pre-incarnations of the Buddha.140This collection of the Fables of Kasyapa was brought to Europe with a deputation from the Cingalese King Chandra Muka Siwa (obiit 52 A.D.) to the Emperor Claudius about 50 A.D., and was done into Greek as the [Greek: Logoi Lybikoi] of "Kybises."141These were utilised by Babrius (from whom the Greek Æsop is derived) and Avian, and so came into the European Æsop.142I have discussed all those that are to be found in the Jatakas in the "History" before mentioned, i. pp.14354-72 (see Notes i. xv. xx.).144In these Notes henceforth I refer to this "History" as my _Æsop_.1 2← previousDemon With Matted Hair " 196, part 22next →Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 24↑ back to Indian Fairy TalesThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/29/page/2/