Representation of the Caṇḍālas in the Jātakas

“Out of 547 Jātaka stories, eight describe the caṇḍālas. Out of these eight stories, half contain passing references about this social class, but at least four are stories where the protagonists themselves are caṇḍālas. In those four stories which are centred around this class, three are comparatively longer stories, including the famous Mātaṅga-Jātaka . These are probably the most elaborate descriptions of this social group from the early historic period. Since the Mātaṅga-Jātaka is more elaborate and complex than the other stories and needs to be discussed separately, I will only discuss the rest of the seven stories here”