Jātaka
Jātaka，1 （nt．） [jāta+ka，belonging to，connected with what has happened] 1．a birth story as found in the earlier books．This is always the story of a previous birth of the Buddha as a wise man of old．In this sense it occurs as the name of one of the 9 categories or varieties of literary composition （M．I，133； A．II，7，103，108； Vin．III，8； Pug．43．See navaṅga）．-2．the story of any previous birth of the Buddha，esp．as an animal．In this sense the word is not found in the 4 Nikāyas，but it occurs on the Bharhut Tope （say，end of 3rd cent．B．C．），and is frequent in the Jātaka book．‹-› 3．the name of a book in the Pāli canon，containing the verses of 547 such stories．The text of this book has not yet been edited．See Rh．Davids’Buddhist India，189--209，and Buddh．Birth Stories，introd．，for history of the Jātaka literature．-- jātakaṁ niṭṭhapeti to wind up a Jātaka tale J．VI，363； jātakaṁ samodhāneti to apply a Jātaka to the incident J．I，106； DhA．I，82．‹-› Note．The form jāta in the sense of jātaka occurs at DhA．I，34．
--atthavaṇṇanā the commentary on the Jātaka book，ed．by V．Fausböll，6 vols．with Index vol．by D．Andersen，London，1877 sq．； --bhāṇaka a repeater of the J．book Miln．341．（Page 281）