Jataka Kathas and their Depiction in Ajanta paintings
The Jataka is a massive collection of Buddhist folklore about previous incarnations of the Buddha, both in human and animal form, originally written in Pali, and dating to at least 380 BCE. The stories come from many sources and have a multitude of authors. Indian Sanskrit works such as Katha saritsagara, Dasa Kuamaracarita, Pancatantra and Hitopadesa contain similar stories.
Sixth century B.C. was a remarkable period in many countries where intellectual activities took place. In China Lao Tzu and Confucius, in Greece Parmenides and Empedocles, in Iran Zarathustra, in India Mahaveer and Buddha. These teachers worked upon their inheritance and developed new points of views. About their life we here many stories and legends and these stories have come down to us in vivid forms. Each one conveyed in one way or the other a lesson, which served the humanity at large in multifarious ways.
Each such tale has an independent status and is usually unconnected with other, though a feeble linkage here and there could also be witnessed in some of them. These stories are connected with the life of Buddha in a unique collection known as Jataka Kathas. The Jataka text contains a vast ocean of stories of the earlier births of Buddha. Buddha, the founder of Buddhism is said to have narrated during his life time, the experiences of his previous births, both as human as well as non-human being to his disciples. These narrations were subsequently come to be known as jataka tales and their number is considered to be 550 or so. A collection of such stories is depicted in Ajanta paintings and sculptural art.
Dr. R C Agravala