The Korean Wave, also known as Hallyu, has taken over India. From K-Dramas to K-Pop, K-Beauty to K-Cuisine, Indians are in love with South Korean culture.
But even before the era of Hallyu gripped us, around 2,000 years ago, India shared a connection with Korea—one that involved a matrimonial alliance between royal families.
The sacred city of Ayodhya, the birthplace of the Hindu deity Lord Rama, holds great significance for some South Koreans—they believe they have ancestral ties to it.
The belief in a connection between Indians and South Koreans comes from the legend of an Indian princess named Suriratna, who married a South Korean king.
The legend states that the young princess travelled by boat, crossing an ocean more than 2,000 years ago, covering 4,500 kilometres, to marry King Kim Suro and establish the Karak dynasty. After marriage, she was known as Queen Heo Hwang-ok.
There are even some texts in Mandarin that claim the King of Ayodhya had a dream in which a god instructed him to send his daughter to marry King Suro.
One of the most common surnames in Korea is Kim, and it is believed that King Kim Suro is considered the father of the Kim clan based in Gimhae. According to a 2018 report, Minji Lee of the BBC Korean Service said, "While traditionally children in Korea take their father's surname, the queen is said to have been sad that her children could not bear her surname. The legend says that, therefore, King Suro allowed two of their sons to take her name (Heo), which is used to this day."
There are some 60 lakh people in South Korea who claim to be descendants of Princess Suriratna. Some famous names who share their ancestry with the Karak dynasty include former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and former Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil.
A memorial of Queen Heo Hwang-ok was established at the Queen Heo Memorial Park on the banks of the Sarayu River in Ayodhya in 2001, in partnership between the Uttar Pradesh government and Gimhae city in South Korea. Many members of the Karak clan visit the memorial to pay their respects.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the South Korean embassy also congratulated India on the consecration ceremony on 22nd January. "The place holds great symbolic importance for Korea-India relations, based on the matrimonial link between Queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) from Ayodhya and King Kim Suro from Gaya (Korea) in 48 AD," it said.
Queen Heo's tomb is situated in Gimhae City, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.