Legendary Korean Queen From Ayodhya

S.A.T.A

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A Princess from Ayodhya

India’s early contacts with Korea date back more than 2000 years. Two thousand years ago, a 16 year old princess from Ayodhya, accompanied by her brother, sailed from India for Korea. We only know her by her Korean name, Huh Wang-Ock. There she wed King Kim Suro, founder of the ancient Korean kingdom of Karack. The King himself received her upon her arrival, and later built a temple at the place where they had first met. She is said to have died at the grand old age of 189. Her story is narrated in the ancient Korean history books, "Samkuksaki" and "Samkukyusa".

Her tomb is located in Kimhae and there is a stone pagoda in front of the tomb. The pagoda is built with stones, which the princess is said to have brought with her from Ayodhya. They have engravings and red patterns. They are believed to have a mysterious power to calm stormy seas. The Kimhae kingdom's influence is still felt in modern-day South Korea. Kimhae Kims and Kimhae Huhs trace their origins to this ancient kingdom and Korea's current President Kim Dae Jung and Prime Minister Jong Pil Kim are Kimhae Kims.

In February, 2000, Kimhae Mayor Song Eun-Bok led a delegation to Ayodhya. The delegation proposed to develop Ayodhya as a sister city of Kimhae and there are plans to set up a memorial for Queen Huh. Note: Ayodhya is the modern Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh. It was the capital of the kingdom of Lord Ram, the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu.


In the northern Indian city of Ayodhya, a visiting Korean delegation has inaugurated a memorial to their royal ancestor, Queen Huh. More than a-hundred historians and government representatives, including the North Korean ambassador to India, unveiled the memorial on the west bank of the River Saryu. Korean historians believe that Queen Huh was a princess of an ancient kingdom in Ayodhya. She went to Korea some two-thousand years ago and started the Karak dynasty by marrying a local king, Suro. Today, the historians say, Queen Huh's descendants number more than six-million, including the South Korean president - Kim Dae Jung. According to a history book written in the 11th century in Korean language, “The History of Three Kingdoms”, the India-Korea relationship started in 48 AD when a princess from Ayodhya, Queen Hur Hwang-ho went to Korea and married King Suro Kim.

 

South Korea's Ayodhya (Ancient India) connection

What's South Korea's Ayodhya connection? To get the answer, pay a visit to the picturesque banks of river Saryu in the holy city. Here one will find a monument in memory of an Ayodhya princess who is believed to have 'mothered' a dynasty in South Korea.

It has been an affair that resurfaced after a lapse of almost 2000 years in the year 2001. Mayors of Ayodhya and Kim-Hae city in South Korea had signed a Sister City Bond in March 2001.

The origin of the historical ties can be traced back to the middle of the first century AD. According to Sam Kuk Yusa, the ancient history of Korea, Queen Huh, wife of legendary King Suro, who founded the Karak Kingdom, was born in Ayodhya.

Queen Huh was a princess of the kingdom. Her father, the king of Ayodhya, on receiving a divine revelation, sent her on a long sea voyage to the Karak kingdom in southern Korea to marry King Suro, states the lines inscribed on the plaque at the monument in Ayodhya.

The monument in memory of Hwang Huh is built in Korean tradition using a three-metre high stone weighing 7,500 kg, specially shipped from South Korea. The clan that descended from the Ayodhya princess Huh and South Korean King Suros, today known as Kim-Hae-Kim clan, has a little over six million Huh descendants in the Republic of South Korea.

The Kim-Hae-Kim clan has countless illustrious members including many presidents and premiers.

The memorial site in Ayodhya has become a place of pilgrimage for members of the clan. While unveiling the monument Bong Ho-Kim, president of the clan society, Republic of Korea had said: "Ayodhya being birthplace of our great Queen Huh, has acquired the status of a place for pilgrimage to over six million descendants."


According to a history book written in the 11th century in Korean language, “History of Three Kingdoms”, in the year 48 AD, an Indian princess by name Hur Hwang-ho (her Korean name), came to Korea from Ayodhya and married King Kim Suro of the ancient Korean Kingdom of Kaya which is now the Kimhae city. Kimhae City is the birthplace of this kingdom and thus has a historical link with Ayodhya. The clan of Kimhae Kims wants to perpetuate this memory.


In 48 AD, Queen Suro or Princess Heo Hwang-ok is said to have made a journey from Lord Ram's birthplace to Korea by sea, carrying a stone which calmed the waters. The stone is not found anywhere in Korea and is now a part of crucial evidence that the princess belonged to the city of Ayodhya in India.

This stone is only found in India, proof that it came from there to Korea," said Song Weon Young, city archeologist of Kimhae, a city near the big industrial town of Pusan. People of Kimhae were so fascinated by these links that they started research on it several years ago.

They also ran into a symbol of the Kaya Kingdon with two fish kissing each other, similar to that of the Mishra royal family in Ayodhya. The Princess is said to have given birth to 10 children, which marked the beginning of the powerful dynasty of Kimhae Kims. Kim Dae Jung, a former President also belongs to the same family name.

But even at the centre of these links lies a strong sense of commercial exchange between Korea and India.

The stone represents Kaya's cultural heritage which did not stay in one place, and the stone indicates that commercial exchange has been on since the Queen came from India.

Thousands of miles away from Ayodhya, the stone is a small piece of history. The people in the city seem quite proud of their links with India, especially because Queen Suro gave rise to the Kim dynasty, a powerful family name in the country.


South Koreans may have Indian genes

A genetic discovery in South Korea has claimed that Koreans could have an Indian ancestor 2000 years ago. The findings have gained interests in the backdrop of the popular romantic legend of an Indian princess married to a Korean king of the Great Gaya dynasty. According to the legend, the Korean king from Southeast Korea, Kim Su-ro, married an Indian princess, Heo Hwang-ok, from the ancient Indian kingdom of Ayodhya.

The stories say that Heo travelled by ship to Korea. The Great Gaya dynasty ruled Southeast Korea till 562 AD. In fact, Heo is still a common family name in Korea.

The researchers now say that the myth could turn out to be true, according to the daily. More studies are in the offing. The genetic study at Gimhae tomb focused on the mitochondrial DNA in the human remains.
 

prahladh

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If she is a princess and around 48 AD can she be by any chance descendant of Ram.
 

S.A.T.A

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According to traditions Rama was supposed to be a descendant of the Ikshvaku dynasty which ruled over the kingdom of Kosala.Although there are still doubts regarding the historicity of this dynasty(there was one Ikshvakus in Andhra in the south),Prasenajit is considered to be the last descendant of the Ikshvaku lineage.Prasenajit ruled Kosala(which included the major centers like Sravasti and Ayodhya) during the time of Gautama Buddha and was a contemporary of Magadhan rulers like Bimbisara and his son Ajatasatru.During the reign of Ajatasatru,Prasenajit was ousted from power and sought refuge with Ajatasatru,but legend has it he died at the gates of the Magdhan capital, Rajagriha.

Ajatasatru eventually defeated and conquered Kosala and incorporated it in the Magadhan empire.This effectively brought an end to the Ikshvaku ruling dynasty of Kosala.This was around the 5th century BCE.

So its unlikely that any recognized descendant of Iksvaku's ruled Ayodhya in 48CE
 

prahladh

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BC and AD was confusing for me and now BCE and CE!!. But I will take it as a no. Thanks
 

S.A.T.A

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BC and AD was confusing for me and now BCE and CE!!. But I will take it as a no. Thanks
:)

CE=Common Era
Old win in a new jar,but little less dilemma for secular scholars.
 

Dotty

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Though you have written this article in 2009, I have stumbled upon it in 2016. That too while doing a research for writing a play. I don't know if I will ever write that play but its subject lead me to some interesting reads. While doing my share of research I have read that there is no possible written facts, except for in Samkuksaki, as these are the ancient folk lores that have lived over the years with the word of mouth and then found stability in papers. As the folk lore goes there are few who believe she arrived on a boat from Malaysia and then there are many who believe she arrived from India. Few say she walked down the mountains with her people and was known more as the mountain queen and then there are sayings that she arrived in a boat all alone and then some say she arrived with her brother. Got married to King Suro, and then again Suro has many names.

Your article again made me believe she arrived from India and the bonding between India and Korea started way back in 48 AD. But then again my question stays folk lores existed in AD or BC. As we cannot say anything about the BC but for AD we have things like pre history to talk about. And I know I have deferred the subject.
 

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