the sutra to narrate the birth stories of Shakyamuni in present life, past lives, and effects related to the past lives and the present lives.

birth tales. Stories of the past lives of the historical Buddha, many hundreds of which are included in the Pali Canon.

Word in the sacred Indian language Pali for a large set of stories of the previous lives of the Buddha; when he was a Bodhisattva, variously presented as an animal or as a person, they describe the consequences of actions and the selfless compassion of the central figure.

The Jātaka (Sanskrit: जातक) is a voluminous body of folklore and mythic literature, primarily associated with the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as written in the Pali language usually dated between 300 BC and 400 AD. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/jataka.html#judge; however, the stories found in the Jataka have been found in numerous other languages and media — many of them being translations from the Pali but others are instead derived from vernacular traditions prior to the Pali compositions. Sanskrit and Tibetan Jataka stories tend to maintain the Buddhist morality of their Pali equivalents, but re-tellings of the stories in Persian and other languages sometimes contain significant amendments to suit their respective cultures.