ACK-035: The Acrobat and Other Buddhist Tales

Taking into account archaeological and literary evidence, it appears that Buddhist tales were compiled in the period third century BC to fifth century AD. They give us invaluable information about Buddha, ancient Indian civilization, culture and philosophy.
The stories of Buddha have been very popular in the Buddhist world. These stories have not only been translated into almost all the languages closely related to Buddhism - Chinese, Tibetan, Sinhalese, Burmese, Japanese - but also into many modern European languages. Sanchi, Bharhut, Amaravati and Ajanta in India, Borobundur in Java, Pegan in Burma and Sukhodaya in Thailand bear testimony to the popularity of these tales.

This ACK comprises of multiple stories. The first, "The Acrobat", is about Ugrasena's transformation from the royal treasurer's son to an acrobat to a follower of Buddha. In the second story, "The Harvest", Buddha teachers a farmer about the benefits of detachment. Buddha explains the ills of desire to the young Prince Kumara in the third story, "The Golden Maiden". And finally, "Buddha and Krishna Gautami" is one of the more famous stories, wherein Buddha teaches the distraught Gautami about the inevitability of truth.

Many many thanks to “Ajay Misra” for providing this ACK scan.