Reading Notes: Babbitt Jataka Tales-Part A

     The Merchant of Seri was one of my favorite tales from part A of this reading.  For some reason, it reminded me of the turtle and the hare story.  One of the characters is cocky, and talented in the case of the hare.  The other character is hardworking and more honest.  The greed of the greedy merchant was clearly incomprehensible! He could have gotten a surge of wealth from doing a simple trade for the bowl but instead wanted it for free.  In the end, hiding his true intentions cost the greedy merchant a great deal.  The other merchant had a good show of character, being honest about the true value of the bowl even when the grandmother didn't know its worth all these years.  I like this story because it has two very different characters, in the same job, juxtaposed to one another.  It turned out to be a happy ending for the honest character, and I appreciated that as well.  I can definitely see myself writing a story based off of this one.  I think there are many ways I could put a twist to make it my one.  One thing that I haven't tried in my stories thus far that many Jataka tales use are animals.  I enjoyed reading the story called The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking.  Still, I can't help but feel this story was originally told in order to keep kids from talking to much.  It's funny imagining the use of these children's stories for ulterior motives!  I enjoyed reading some of these different tales that I was previously unfamiliar with.  They had messages and morals that I didn't remember from some of the stories at the beginning of the semester.  For example, The Sandy Road tale does a great job of enforcing the idea of never quitting and never giving up.  I thought the caravan traveling through the desert would be made a lesson of in how they had prematurely gotten rid of their resources.  Instead, we got to see their perseverance.  I also enjoyed the moral of the story from The Quarrel of the Quails.  This one stressed teamwork and solidarity.  I hope to employ similar morals if I choose to rewrite a Jataka tale!

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt in 1912

An illustration of Jataka Tales.
Source: commons

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