Jatakas in south Indian Art

by Dr. B. Subrahmanyam

Early Buddhist monastic establishements of south India between 2nd centry B. C. and 5th century A.d. were embellished with sculptural panels depicting the life events of the Buddha and his former births. These visual barratives were created with a view to educate the pilgrims patrons and also general public about the morals and ethics contained in them. Though the sculptural panels depicted with jatakas recovered form various with jatakas recovered from various sites were published in differennt journals and excavation reports some of them were left untouched and unidentified perhaps due to lack of interest and research on this particular aspect. B. Subrahmanyam born in 27/8/1950 at Guntur in Andhra Pradesh pursued his post graduates studies in Ancient Indian history culture and Archaeology in the P. G centre Guntur and obtained his M.A. degree in 1974 from Andhra Universtiy.