About the Book: The text is a fifth or sixth-century CE narrative, originally written in Pali (likely in present-day Sri Lanka), that serves as an introduction to the jātakas—547 stories chronicling the Buddha’s path to enlightenment over countless lifetimes. It preserves the oral tradition of the Bodhisatta’s quest. The story begins with the Bodhisatta, in an earlier life as the ascetic Sumedha, making a profound vow to delay his own awakening until he can guide others to liberation. This vow sets him on a long series of lives as various beings (man, animal, god) before his final life as the Buddha, when he recalls his entire journey, teachings, and the establishment of the monastic community. This work is considered one of the most significant biographical works in the Buddhist tradition.