The beauty of reincarnation is that it offers endless scope for sequels and prequels of the lives of great personalities. One of India’s oldest collection of stories is one such example.
The Jataka Tales deal with the many lives of the Buddha before he was born as prince Siddhartha. Composed between 400 and 200 B.C., it’s a series of fables that reflect the Buddhist “Middle Way.” Stories, more than discourse, can communicate grander themes in a lasting and effective manner. So it is that the Jataka Tales have survived thousands of years – preserved as inscriptions, folk stories and now, comics books.
The characters are the archetypes of everyday life in ancient India – animals, kings, priests and so on. The protagonist is invariably an incarnation of the Buddha prior to his enlightenment. Each life is, in its own way, a message. The themes are moral, and sometimes rather dark.
In “The Feast of the Dead“, a priest is called upon to sacrifice a goat. He orders his pupils to bathe the goat, prior to its slaughter. The goat, knowing of its looming death, rejoices and then weeps. It is taken to the priest to explain its behaviour.
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