Ebook: Readings of the Vessantara Jātaka

This anthology undertakes sophisticated literary, anthropological, and art historical analyses of the Vessantara Jataka and its ethics of giving, understanding of attachment and nonattachment, depiction of the trickster, and unique performative qualities. Contributors including anthropologists, textual scholars in religious and Buddhist studies, and art historians unravelthe story's moral and religious character. This collection helps recast Buddhism as a human tradition rich in ethical, political, and aesthetic complexity.