Korean queen's curious Indian connect

Korean Queen Heo Hwang-ok is said to have arrived by boat from an Indian kingdom called 'Ayuta'

Indians who feel a strong connection to Korean culture will be thrilled to note that a revered Korean queen Heo Hwang-ok is said to have travelled from all the way from India to Korea to marry a Korean king.

Queen Heo Hwang-ok is also known as "Suriratna," and is mentioned in "Samguk Yusa," a 13th-century Korean chronicle written by Buddhist monk Il-yeon.

According to the chronicle, she became the wife of King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya at the age of 16, after having arrived by boat from a distant kingdom called "Ayuta," which phonetically sounds similar to "Ayodhya"—believed to be her native kingdom.

The queen is said to have started the Karak dynasty. More than six million Koreans, especially from Gimhae Kim, Heo and Lee clans, trace their lineage to the legendary queen as the direct descendants of her children with King Suro.

"Ayodhya has important relations with Korea," said the then South Korean Ambassador to India Shin Bong-kil in an interview with news agency ANI in August 2020. "In Korea's ancient history book, it's written that a princess from Ayodhya married a Korean king, Kim Suro. In archaeological findings from the king's tomb, artefacts belonging to Ayodhya have been found."

In 2001, a memorial dedicated to the Korean Queen Heo Hwang-ok was inaugurated on the banks of the Sarayu River in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. In July 2018, the two countries signed an agreement to facilitate the upgrade and expansion of the existing monument. In November 2018, the First Lady of South Korea, Kim Jung-sook laid down the foundation stone for the project during her visit to the holy town.

Meanwhile, in 2010, Prof Byung Mo Kim, the then Professor Emeritus of Hanyang University and national archaeologist from Korea, visited Ayodhya since he shared a "genetic connection" with the city.

The archaeologist's work on the princess of Ayodhya marrying the prince of Korea's Kara dynasty in the 4th century AD has received widespread recognition. His research shows that the twin fish, which is the state symbol of Uttar Pradesh and is found on almost all the ancient buildings of Ayodhya, is also the symbol of the Geumgwan Kingdom.

However, Dr Kannan Narayanan, a retired professor and former Scientific Adviser & Coordinator of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, South Korea, has a different theory to propose regarding the origins of Queen Heo Hwang-ok.

"Queen Heo Hwang-ok was supposed to have landed in Gimhae, Korea in CE 48. However, her story was written by Il-yeon in 'Samguk Yusa' in the 1280s. So there is a large gap in this narrative," said the 69-year-old Narayanan. "From his readings on Chinese chronicles, Tsutomu Kambe— former professor at Tokyo University—presumes that the name Heo Hwang-ok means the South Indian Kingdom called Pandya."

The Pandya dynasty, also known as the Pandyas of Madurai, was a dynasty of south India, one of the three famous Tamil lineages. The other two were the Chola and the Chera.

"Heo Hwang-ok, when translated from Chinese, will sound more like 'Chempavalam' or 'Chemba' in Tamil, not Suriratna as proposed," Narayanan added.

Furthermore, Kannan claims that the twin fish symbol seen on the walls of Ayodhya probably dates from the time when it was a part of the United Provinces. In contrast, the Pandya dynasty had twin fish as their national symbol from time immemorial.

A verse corroborates this claim of Kannan's by the 12th-century Tamil court poet Ottakoothar that mentions the Pandya flag while comparing it to the Chola flag, "Can the fish flag (Pandya's) be at par with the tiger flag (Chola's)"?

"It is highly likely that the queen left the port of Athiyuthu from Tamil Nadu and not Ayodhya. Athiyuthu might have been modified over time to 'Ayutha' in Korean," Kannan concluded.

(Kartikeya is a journalist from Delhi who is passionate about covering culture, politics, conflict, food, and human interest stories.)