Topic Research: Crime, Justice, and Jatakas


After thinking about each of these topics, I feel like I will be most interested in (therefore, I will create my best work) with the Jataka Tales. You mentioned maybe making a short list of a few stories that would have a law/justice-like plot, and I would greatly appreciate that! I began with the Guilty Dog story, but this week I will do more research with a couple more Jatakas. For more research, I will keep looking deeper into these stories and choosing ones that I can relate and tie together into one big story.

Here are my scratch notes:

1.     History of Jatakas
-       Wiki History : this link shows Jataka History
-       These are some of the earliest Bhuddhist texts
-       Show Buddha as an animal, king, outcast, etc

2.     Story 1: The Young Parrot
-       There was a young parrot, child of the king and queen parrot, that was more beautiful than all the others
-       The parents grew very old, so the parrot would bring them food from the rice field where the flock ate
-       They soon found a field more beautiful and fertile than the other, but the farmer did not like the parrots eating his rice
-       The farmer and his men set a trap to catch the most beautiful bird
-       When he got caught, he waited for his friends to eat before he called for help, and they left without him
-       Admitted that he took extra rice to feed his old parents, and the farmer became compassionate and let the bird return to his field every day.
-       MY STORY: I would make the bird like a young criminal that steals from a rich man’s factory or house or something like that; and someone will set a trap (security cameras or possibly an investigation) and eventually either the criminal or the law team would see that this celebrity was a generous giver, only stealing for those who are starving (like Robin Hood-type criminal), and the victim of the crime becomes compassionate like the farmer

3.     Story 2: The Master’s Test
-       A master wanted to teach his pupils a lesson, so he told them to go find money for him in the city
-       The master told the students to quietly hide and sit and wait for someone to come by, but not to harm them
-       They all went except one: He didn’t want to steal and stuck up for himself
-       Lesson: Even when you think no one is watching, your conscience, or God, or Buddha, etc is watching (stand up for what you believe in)
-       MY STORY: I just finished a TV series called “How to get away with murder” and the plots of these stories are very similar. Law students are always tested to stand up for their morals and their beliefs, and many fail. I would make characters in this Jataka enroll in law school, and the professor makes them write a case brief or defend a criminal that is very unethical. This would be a great way to begin my project! Maybe I can make a story about one particular student that passed this test of morals and goes on to be characters in all the rest of the stories when he begins practicing.


I found both of these stories in this Jataka Storybook, but I will choose other books in the following weeks to broaden my scope to lots of other stories.

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