The four elements: Earth, air, fire and water in Anatolian and Indian fairy tales

Tales have emerged as a result of the effort of man to make sense of the universe and his own existence since the unknown times of history. Tales provide us with many clues about the lifestyles, religious beliefs, social relations and worldviews of the societies in which they were born. In all of these oral products, it has been determined that the four elements that create the essence of life are the common themes. In this context, the four elements are among the common themes in Anatolian and Indian tales. The four elements of earth, air, fire and water in Anatolian and Indian tales will be discussed and comparatively examined in terms of archetypal method. In this respect, the aim of the study is to determine the traces of archetypal, symbolic, cultural and mythical beliefs based on the descriptions of the four elements of tales belonging to different climate, geography, belief and culture and to reveal the similarities and differences in the processing of these traces. This research paper was created with reference to C.G. Jung's definition of archetypes and his work titled Four Archetypes. As a result of the study on Anatolian and Indian tales, it has been concluded that the four elements that have been used since archaic times can be considered as archetypes due to their proto-image feature and symbolic uses.