(Image: Jataka Tales Source: Buddha Channel)
I've been thinking about delving into the tropes of Indian folktales and how they intersect with folktales from other cultures. I've read several western stories and a few east Asian folktales as well, and they share several similarities. One of the most obvious is that they all have talking animals. I've done a little bit of research into why these stories use talking animals as a convention, but I'd love to dig into that a little bit more. I also noticed that these stories tend to use the same animals to represent the same things (turtle: wisdom, wolf: arrogance). I know I'd enjoy doing some background research on why these animals have come to represent these traits in stories spanning several different cultures. Also, why is the goose associated with gold in both western and Indian traditions? This parallel is especially strange to me. The stories are quite different (feathers v egg). I'm also still puzzled as to the meaning of many stories. The goose one was quite disturbing and seemed to warn against charity. I'm sure some of them would make a bit more sense with the Buddha's commentary, but as these are meant as children's parables, you'd think that the message would be a little more obvious. The story of Prince Wicked at least had a clear message. It might be fun to write a story with the western Prince Charming and Prince Wicked. Overall, I enjoyed reading through all of the stories. While many of them seemed repetitive (most of them were a critique of greed), they were still quite charming.
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