The story Gandatindu Jataka was written in which language?
- A.Sanskrit
- B.Telugu
- C.Tamil
- D.Pali
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is D, Pali. The Gandatindu Jataka is one of the Jataka tales, the stories of the Buddha's earlier births, which were composed in Pali and preserved in the Buddhist canon.
The Jatakas form part of the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka in the Pali Tipitaka, and there are about 550 of them. Many were ordinary folk tales retold with a moral. The Gandatindu Jataka tells of a wicked king whose subjects, old men and women, cultivators, herders, village boys and even animals, suffer under his rule, and it shows how ordinary people saw a cruel ruler. Scenes from the Jatakas are carved at Bharhut and Sanchi and painted at Ajanta.
A, Sanskrit, was the language of the Vedas, the epics and later Mahayana texts, not of this Jataka. B, Telugu, and C, Tamil, are Dravidian languages whose early literature, such as the Tamil Sangam poems, belongs to a different tradition and does not contain the Jatakas.
Exam tip: Jatakas, about 550 tales of the Buddha's past lives, in Pali, part of the Sutta Pitaka.
Practice Questions
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