Jataka Tales (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press)

The Jataka is a voluminous body of folklore and mythic literature, primarily associated with the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as written in the Pali language around the 3rd century A. D. Some people believe that they formed the basis for Aesop's Fables and The Arabian Nights. Generally, the Jataka stories have disseminated from India to become part of the world's folk-literature, in numerous variations. Professor Rhys Davids speaks of them as "a priceless record of the childhood of our race. The same stories are found in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian, and in most European languages. The Greek versions of the Jataka Tales were adapted and ascribed to the famous storyteller, Aesop, and under his name handed down as a continual feast for the children in the West - tales first invented to please and instruct our far-off cousins in the East. "