Jātaka
In short: A Buddhist account of one of the Buddha’s previous lives.
Term
How does it work in the tale?
The Vessantara story explores generosity through a prince’s gifts. Palm-leaf records from Myanmar and Thailand document it in separate manuscript traditions. The catalogue dates refer to the surviving copies.
Who learns from the tortoise’s fall?
In The Talkative Tortoise, published by Joseph Jacobs, a tortoise grips a stick in its mouth and falls when it tries to answer the villagers below. The future Buddha explains the incident to the king. The king realises that the lesson applies to him and begins to speak less. What happens to the animals changes the conversation at court.