MarytaleJataka tales
Jataka tales in English — Indian stories about animals who behave better than the people round them, written down over two thousand years ago.
5 stories
The Jataka tales were written down in Pali from about 300 BC and there are some five hundred of them. Each one is told as a story about a previous life of the Buddha, and in most of them he is an animal — a monkey, a deer, an ox — which is why the animals in these tales are so often the ones doing the right thing while the humans work out what they have just seen.
They are not gentle in the way European fables are gentle. The monkey king holds a bridge with his own body until eighty thousand monkeys have crossed it, and it costs him everything. The banyan deer walks to the kitchen block himself rather than send a mother in his place. Nobody in these stories is rewarded for being nice; they simply do the thing, and the story watches.
🔑 The one that children ask for twice is the hare who heard a mango fall and started a stampede that emptied a forest. It is the funniest story on this site and also the most useful, and the lion's question at the end — «who actually saw it?» — is worth having in a household.
The Banyan Deer4-6 min read · 13 pagesThe banyan deer, a Jataka tale to read aloud. The king hunts one deer a day, and one morning a mother is chosen who cannot go.
The Goose with the Golden Feathers4-6 min read · 12 pagesThe goose with the golden feathers, a Jataka tale to read aloud. One feather at a time is enough to live on, until somebody decides it is not.
The Hare Who Heard a Sound4-6 min read · 13 pagesThe hare who heard a sound, a Jataka tale to read aloud. A mango falls behind him, and within an hour the whole forest is running.
The Monkey King and the Bridge4-6 min read · 13 pagesThe monkey king and the bridge, a Jataka tale to read aloud. Eighty thousand monkeys, one river, and a gap that has to be crossed somehow.
The Ox Who Won the Forfeit3-4 min read · 13 pagesThe ox who won the forfeit, a Jataka tale to read aloud. He can pull a hundred carts, and the only thing that stops him is how he is asked.
Frequently asked
- What are the Jataka tales?
- A collection of about five hundred Indian stories, written down in Pali from around 300 BC, each framed as an episode from a previous life of the Buddha. They are among the oldest stories in the world that are still told to children.
- Are they religious?
- They come out of Buddhist tradition, and we have told them as stories rather than as teaching. Nothing here asks a child to believe anything; the frame about previous lives is where the collection comes from, not what the tale is about.
- How do they differ from the Panchatantra?
- The Panchatantra teaches you how to survive people. The Jataka tales are about what somebody is willing to give up. Both are Indian, both are older than Aesop, and they are next door to each other on this site.
- Which is the gentlest?
- The ox who won the forfeit — nobody is hurt in it, and the whole story turns on how you speak to somebody. The banyan deer is the hardest, and we have marked it from seven.
What is a fable? Features and examples
By topic
- Bedtime stories about animals
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- Long bedtime stories
- Classic fairy tales
- 5 minute bedtime stories
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- Moral stories
- Brothers Grimm fairy tales
- Princess bedtime stories
- Aesop's fables
- Bear bedtime stories
- Hans Christian Andersen
- Bedtime stories about cats
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- Dinosaur bedtime stories