National Narration of Adam Khan and Durkhanai

Narratives are a very important part of literature which is the great source of a nation’s cultural values. There are two types of tales in Pashto folklore, those which are translated from other languages and those which are national and written by Pashto writers themselves. The first national narratives in Pashto “Adam Khan and Durkhanai, Dalai and Shamai” attributed to Sadar Khan Khatak. Dalai and Shamai was written in 1110 Hijjree while Adam Khan and Durkhanai was written in 1118 Hijjree. “Adam Khan and Durkhanai” is a national tale of Pashto language which was initially versified in the form of couplets, where each line has eight syllables, by Sadar Khan Khatak in 1110 Hijjree. The number of couplets is 2587. This tale was published by Pashto Academy of Peshawar University in 1959 AD for the first time.