Project Idea: Jataka Tales

If you enjoyed the Jataka Anthology from back in Week 2, you can use your semester project to learn more about this Buddhist storytelling tradition from India. You will find so many echoes between the Jataka themes and characters and the stories of the epics.

Research Tip: Start with the Wikipedia article about the Jataka tradition, and you can also get some good background on Buddhism there and on the life of Gautama Buddha. You will find these Jataka comic books on Reserve in Bizzell, and there are many great Jataka books online. I've also got a blog featuring many of the most famous Jataka tales with notes: Stories from India. The stories in that blog are at Diigo where you can search by length (for example, here are the extra-short and short jatakas), along with other Diigo searches.

Past Projects:

• Jataka Tales: Waffle and Tootsie