تلخیص
The theory of Archetypal Hero, put forward by Carl Jung, enumerates some characteristics of
Archetypal Hero and informs that the typical pattern of Archetypal hero is the product of our
personal and collective unconscious and thus can be found universally inside mythologies,
dramas, and stories of every culture. The ‘story of Harun Rashid’s son’ that is believed to be a
historically true religious story, has descended to us through primary orality. The researcher
attempted to find if the hero of the story fulfilled the characteristics of the Archetypal hero. The
medium of primary orality, as opposed to the medium of literacy, was exposed to various risks of
distortion. While relating something from the past, when some gaps occur in our memory, then it
is quite natural for us that our account is distorted in accordance to what lies deep in our
unconscious. This story does not even name the prince and the same story is available in
different versions due to the functioning of the processes of chain and serial transmission in the
medium of primary. These sources of transmission are a sure cause of distortion and change.
The hero was found to fulfill all the characteristics of the archetypal hero most perfectly. The
results put a question mark over the historical validity of this story. We come to suspect that this
story, believed as factual, might have been a result of our personal and collective unconscious,
instead of being a true story or might have got distorted with the passage of time to adjust its
hero to the universal pattern of Archetypal Hero, due to the absence of record keeping in the
medium of primary orality. Keeping in view the process of distortion operative in the field of oral
literature and its hero fulfilling all the characteristics of Archetypal Hero, it cannot be ruled out
that the story, despite having a single historically true verifiable figure, is most probably the
product of the collective unconscious.
Dr. Syed Shujaat Ali, Mr. Saeed Akhtar. (2018) Story of Harun Rashid’s Son: A story with Archetypal hero, Acta Islamica, Volume-06, Issue-1.
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