'Western biographies of the Buddha typically begin with his birth sometime in the 5th century B.C.E. However, Buddhist biographies of the Buddha, at least in South and Southeast Asia, traditionally start with accounts of his many previous lives (jAYtakas) when he was practicing the bodhisattva path on his way to full buddhahood. Western scholars have long been interested in these jAYtakas, but they have spent most of their energies on translating or retelling the stories, on treating them as folklore, or on picking themes out of them for topical studies. Comparatively few scholars have seriously examined jAYtaka literature itself as a particular genre, with its own religious preoccupations and implications. In this masterful work by a leading new voice in jAYtaka studies, Naomi Appleton does just that. Focusing on the major collections of Pali tales, she shows us what these stories can tell us about TheravAYda understandings not only of the figure of the Buddha but of the bodhisattva path, and of the connection of the jAYtakas to contemporary religious practice.This is a pivotal book, which should serve not only to review past scholarship on the jAYtakas, but to push it in new directions.' John Strong, Bates College, USA 'Naomi Appleton examines the stories of the Buddha's previous lives, not as fables or folklore or for the sake of retelling these Pali tales, but to reconsider jatakas as a specifically Buddhist genre. By illustrating the ways in which these stories teach the bodhisattva's path, Appleton examines how they enable Buddhists to share in the experiences that led to the Buddha's enlightenment.' Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly '[A] well-researched book. Naomi Appleton succeeds in drawing attention to the historical development and the ideology of a distinct and influential genre of Pali Buddhist literature. She gives with great care and clarity the long awaited attention that such popular and influential Buddhist texts so richly deserve.'