The Tradition of Indian Folk Tales and Buddhist Jātaka Tales

Abstract

This paper mainly deals with the narrative tradition of the Indian sub-continent. Although the Jātaka tales are considered as tales belonging to Buddhism, according to the opinion of some scholars these are considered as folklore of India. By the way, this article throws a light on the evolution of the tradition of Indian Folk Tales. Further showing how far they have moderated and mixed with the Buddhist Jātaka tales in the context of religious edification after the considerable period of time of Buddha's parinirvāna. The 'Karma concept' is considered as the central point of Buddhist philosophy. However, the discussion of this concept is found in the tradition of Indian folk tales as well. We should discuss this further, about how the Karma concept became included within the folk tales of the tribal people who are living in the dense forests.