The Sutta Pitaka is the second part of the three-part Tripitaka, or (Three baskets [of texts]), the primary canon of Buddhism.The Sutta Pitaka contains more than 10,000 suttas delivered by the Buddha around the time of his 45 year teaching career. It also contains many additional suttas from members of the sangha. (sangha are groups of Buddhist monks)



There are five nikayas (collections) in the Sutta Pitaka. Looking at the nikayas you'll notice Khuddaka Nikaya, which is "the division of short books". This consists of 15 books (eighteen in the Burmese edition) with many Buddhist stories and verses inside. Book 10 of the Khuddaka Nikaya is the Jataka.

The Jātaka is a collection of 547 stories, from the Sutta Pitaka division of the Tripitaka. Like the rest of the Tripitaka, the Jataka is in Pali, a north Indian dialect related to Sanskrit, which appears to be the literary language of early Buddhism.