One of my favorite pieces of literature that I have read this year has been the Jatakas. I am particularly interested in them because I am writing my story book over them, but they are also really interesting to read. Like in most Indian epic writings, the animals and humans have verbal communication to each other. I think this is particularly interesting and I wish I could do this… But they have tons of wisdom in each story. And each is equated to the spirituality of the Buddhist who have wrote and studies these. One of the interesting ones that I read this week was the story of The Ox Who Won the Forfeit. I was intrigued by this title because I did not know what it meant to win a forfeit. So I dove into this short story to get a good understanding of what it was. In this story a man who owns an ox claims that he has the strongest ox in the world. He boasted so much about this ox that he made a wager with some town folk for 1000 coins. He said his ox could pull 100 wagons. He yoked his ox and he yelled at him to pull and shouted bad names to his ox. His ox would not move so he lost his forfeit of 1000 coins. Later he went home and spoke to the ox who said that the bad names and whipping were cruel and so he did not move, but if he were to treat him better he would win his master his forfeit back. So they went back to the city and his master treated him so well. The ox pulled and won the forfeit. These tales are super interesting to me and I have loved to get to read each of them. I am looking forward to trying read and understand more.
"Get along, you Rascal"
The Jataka Tales of India
Ellen C. Babbitt
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