jataka

/ˈdʒɑːtəkə/

Etymology

From Sanskrit जातक (jātaka, “born under”).

jataka means any of a large number of Indian tales concerning the previous lives of Gautama Buddha. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.

Why this word is great

JATAKA — [Noun] Any of a large number of stories in Buddhist literature concerning the previous lives of Gautama Buddha. From Sanskrit जातक (jātaka, "born under, relating to birth"), from जात (jāta, "born"). Unlike a *sutra*, which delivers direct doctrinal discourse, or a *fable*, which offers a free-floating moral, a jātaka is a doctrinal knot, binding universal lessons to the specific, accumulating biography of a single consciousness. It is a rabbit’s selfless sacrifice on a moonlit road, a king bleeding himself to feed a hawk, a merchant drowning because he cannot release a fistful of grain—each tale a fossilized act of compassion, a provisional draft of the man to come. In these endless rehearsals for Buddhahood, every life is a rough sketch, and every death merely an erasure.

noun

Any of a large number of Indian tales concerning the previous lives of Gautama Buddha.“In the centuries after the Buddha's life, many ordinary, non-literate Indians would have learned of him through Jatakas, popular morality tales about his imagined previous lives […]”