Jataka Tales: Bird Stories

Bird Stories

The Value of Friends

A hawk once lived alone at a large lake. Until, one day a lady hawk came and he asked her to be his wife. She told him she would but that he needed to make friends first. So the guy hawk went out and made friends with a tortoise, osprey, and a lion. After they became friends the two hawks decided to start a family on an island they thought would be excluded from all people. It turns out this island was not far enough away and one day two men came along to camp on the hawks' island. The men were planning to catch the hawks' babies so the guy hawk went and got his friend the osprey. The osprey came and detoured the two men for quite some time. Then the hawk got the tortoise and the men tried to catch him but he dragged them back into the lake. Finally, the hawk went to get the lion who was able to scare away the two men for good. The wife hawk then said that was the reason she forced him to make friends. The moral of the story is to be kind to people because you never know when you may find yourself in a situation in which a friend could save your life. 

Jataka Tales Comic Books by: Kamala Chandrakant, Ashok Dongre, and Anant Pai from the Reserves at the Bizzell Memorial Library

Jataka Tales: Battle of Wits

Battle of Wits

This comic was about a young boy who was born into a rich family after the king dreamt of a large flame. The Kings people told him that the flame represented a special boy who would be born and come to be smarter than the four of the kings people combined. As the boy grows up he shows some examples of being intellectually superior to his peers. Eventually word of this boy gets back to the king and the king decides to do some surveillance on this boy. Overtime one of the kings men comes back with a story regarding this boys actions they conjure up a reason as to why this is just normal behavior. The king senses that his men are trying to cover something up so he goes to meet the boy himself. When the king finally gets to meet the boy he tells him to sit down. The boys father stands up and the boy sits where he was. The king takes this as offensive however the boy was doing it to prove his point that age does not correlate to wisdom.

Battle of Wits By Yagya Sharma, Ram Waeerkar, and Anant Pai from the reserves at the Bizzell Memorial Library