Wikipedia Trail: From Jataka Tales to Middle Indo-Aryan Languages

The Jataka Tales https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jataka_tales

The Jaka Tales  are about the past lives of Gautama Buddha in human and animal forms. Typically, there are a lot of characters involved who cause trouble, but then the Buddha figure intervenes and solves the problem. These tales are a part of the Pāli Canon, which I looked at next. 

The Pāli Canon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pāli_Canon 

The Pāli Canon are the standard scripture for Theravada Buddhism. There are 3 general categories called Vinaya Pitaka dealing with rules, Sutta Pikata about sermons, and Abhidhamma Pikata about philosophy. It is the most complete canon in the in the Pāli language. 

The Pāli Language https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali

The Pāli language is also known as Magadhan, native to India. It is studied by many people because it is the sacred language of all Theravada Buddhism texts, and some for Hinduism as well. It is very closely related to Sanskrit. It is also a Middle Indo-Aryan language. 

Middle Indo-Aryan languages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Indo-Aryan_languages

 Middle Indo-Aryan languages (MIA) were used between 600BC - 1000AD. It just shows where in the development of this language that Pāli was used. It is the predecessor of languages such as Hindustani, Punjabi and Bengali. I thibk it is interesting how languages transform overtime. 

  

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Week 11 Story: The Girl and The Black Lamb

There once was a farmer who loved farming all of his fruits and vegetables, and tending to livestock. He would go out every day to pick his fruits and vegetables, and to feed and water his animals. As years went by, he met his wife, they had children and his farm became bigger and bigger until he had to hire people to help him tend to his crops and livestock. As his farm grew, he noticed that more and more children from the area would come to eat an apple or two, and to pet his animals.
As months passed, spring came around again, when all his horses, sheep and cattle began having their babies. One sheep in particular was his wife’s favorite, because she had picked her out at the auction herself when it was still a lamb. Now, a few months later, it was old enough to have a lamb of its own. The Farmer’s Wife went out daily to check on her sweet sheep, until it was finally ready to give birth. To her surprise, the new lamb was as black as night in the sea of white wool. The Farmer’s Wife fell in love with the new lamb and cared for it day and night.
A few weeks later, the Farmer’s Family all went on a road trip to scout out some more livestock to bring back home. During their time away, one little girl in particular who lived in the area had also fallen in love with the little black lamb and took her to her home a mile away to care for her while the farmers were gone.
When the family returned, they found the black lamb missing, so all of the hired hands went out in search for the lost lamb. One of the hired hands had noticed that the girl who used to come over all the time had not been around for the past week, and went over to her house. There, he found her and the black lamb playing happily in the yard. Together, they went back to the Farmer and returned their beloved lamb.

Based off of the story: The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls

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Author’s Note:
This story is based off of the short story, The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls. In the original story, it is a King and the Queen who have the pearls go missing. In the story I wrote, I chose to use a farmer and his wife who still have a lot of land and wealth because that is more relatable living in Oklahoma. Also, just like it was normal for the monkies to be in the garden, it was normal for the children to be at the farm. I also found it interesting that the King did not seem angry in the original story, so in the story I wrote, the little girl did not have bad intentions and I focused on how it was returned, and the Farmers were happy. 

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales Part A

In the story of The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls, I was interested to see the outcome so mild. The girl monkey waited to steal the string of pearls and when she eventually got them, I assumed that the guard would have been executed for losing the pearls. Then when the guard set up a plan to find them and lured the girl monkey out, I thought the girl monkey would be executed for taking them. Instead, it only mentioned that the guard was praised for his idea! It was just a different ending than I thought it would have. Then, as I read about the Stupid Monkeys and how they were given the task of watering the trees, it reminded me of a joke I heard years ago. In the joke, two guys were tasked with measuring the height of a flag pole. One started to lay it down to get the measurement and then the other guy said, we were told to measure the height! Not how wide it is! In the story, the monkeys were unsure of how much water the trees needed, so the leader said to pull them up and water them according to how long the roots are. It ended up killing the trees!

Stupid Monkey!

Source: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt