individual jatakasare rarely narrated in isolation. They
usually participate in larger texts, which occasionally
have counterparts in literary genres. Since these larger
texts are expressions of different Buddhisms in various
times and places, JATAKAnarratives should be viewed
in their embedded textual and sociocultural contexts.
Despite the acknowledged antiquity of the 547 Pali
verse jatakas,the earliest datable physical jatakanarra-
tives are the visual ones on the Bharhut stupa railing
(ca. first century B.C.E.). With the exception of the cop-
ing reliefs, the Bharhut jatakasbelong to a larger text
that includes other kinds of narratives, such as inci-
dents from the Buddha’s life, AVADANAS,and “legends”
concerning historical figures. The Bharhut coping takes
the form of an s-shaped lotus vine-cum-garland, within
each of whose lower curves a jatakais narrated. Hence,
the coping functions as a unified text of the JATAKA-
MALA(garland of jatakas) genre.
The BOROBUDURstupa contains another sculpted
example of a unified jatakacycle within a larger mon-
umental text, which is possibly an extended biography
of the Buddha. Similar cycles proliferate in the murals
of the pre-Tang (ca. 421–640 C.E.) SILKROADcave
monasteries of Kucha and in various media in Burmese
STUPAs and temples from the eleventh century onward,
especially at Pagan. Burma has the longest and most
prolific tradition of visual jatakas,which ceramists,
painters, and woodcarvers narrate individually, in small
groups, or in cycles. For example, glazed tiles line the
upper circumambulatory terraces of the ANANDATEM-
PLE, composing a cycle of 554 jatakas,prefaced by events
from the Buddha’s last birth on the lower terraces. The
main hall narratives of AJANTA’s fifth-century caves 1
and 17 compose monumental jatakamalas,which are
framed and bracketed by the cave’s porch, shrine
antechamber, and shrine. The latter narrate important
events from the Buddha’s ministry and represent cos-
mic landscapes and beings often shown worshiping the
Buddha.
How do visual jatakasfunction? Buddhist texts do
not narrate jatakasconcerning other buddhas and all
buddhas perform the same deeds in their last births.
Thus, the significant presence of jatakasin a Buddhist
monastery indicates that S ́akyamuni Buddha and his
worship are the focus of Buddhist practice and belief
there. Further, visual jatakas re-create the Bodh-
isattva’s marvelous deeds as models to be imitated and
as transcendental actions to be worshiped, character-
izing his nature as human and supramundane. Archi-
tecture and style express this visually, as in the jataka
cycles painted on the sloping ceilings of the Kizil caves
and in the idealized naturalism of paintings at Ajanta.
Finally, jatakacycles allow Buddhist pilgrims to fol-
low the Buddha’s steps by walking through his previ-
ous lives.See also:Buddha, Life of the, in Art; Dunhuang; Sutra
IllustrationsBibliography
Barua, Beni Madhab. Bharhut.Patna, India: Indological Book
Corp., 1979.
Cummings, Mary. The Lives of the Buddha in the Art and Liter-
ature of Asia.Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for
South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1982.
Dehejia, Vidya. Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narra-
tives of India.New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997.
Girard-Geslan, Maud, et al. Art of Southeast Asia,tr. J. A. Un-
derwood. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998.
Schlingloff, Dieter. Studies in the AjantaPaintings: Identifica-
tions and Interpretations.Delhi: AjantaPublications, 1987.
Schlingloff, Dieter. Guide to the AjantaPaintings: Narrative Wall
Paintings.New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1999.
Whitfield, Roderick. Cave Temples of Mogao: Art and History on
the Silk Road.Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute and
the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000.
LEELAADITIWOODJATAKAMALAJatakamala(Garland of Jatakas) is the title of a work
by the poet ARYAS ́URA(fourth century C.E.). The title
was later adopted by other authors, such as Haribhatta
(early fifth century) and Gopadatta (seventh or eighth
century), each of whom gives a personal slant to his
own selection of thirty-four legends about the Bud-
dha’s previous lives, refashioning them in a mixture of
verse and prose. Fourteen of Haribhatta’s retellings
survive in the original Sanskrit (the entire work is avail-
able in Tibetan), and about half of Gopadatta’s Gar-
landhas so far been retrieved from miscellaneous story
collections in Sanskrit.See also:JatakaBibliography
Hahn, Michael. Haribhatta and Gopadatta: Two Authors in the
Succession of Aryas ́ura, on the Rediscovery of Parts of TheirJATAKAMALA