Page:The Fables of Bidpai (Panchatantra).djvu/24

xiv us a moment, as they serve to establish the date of the original Bidpai, and throw some light on the framework device. These Jatakas are tales supposed to have been told by the Buddha, and to be in each case experiences undergone by him or witnessed by him during one or other of his former manifestations on earth. This is obviously a very convenient form by which to connect a number of stories even about birds, beasts, and fishes, since the Bodisat (or Buddha) is thought to have appeared in animal shape. Thus the eleventh, or Lakkhana Jataka (Rhys-Davids, p. 194), begins: “At that time the Bodisat came to life as a deer,” and it has been calculated that, of the 550 Birth Stories, 108 relate to the appearances of the Buddha as a monkey, deer, lion, wild duck, snipe, elephant, cock, eagle, horse, bull, serpent, iguana, rat, jackal, &c. (l.c. Table VII. p. ci.) It is therefore probable that most of these Fables were first brought into connection with one another as Birth Stories of the Buddha, and some of them may actually have been composed by him, as it was clearly his custom to inculcate moral truths by some such apologues. Benfey had already seen the Buddhistic tone of the whole collection (Pant. i p. xi), and Mr.