Author: Pramod Mathur
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: September 30, 2014
URL: http://www.newindianexpress.com/columns/Korean-Connect-to-Indian-Historical-City/2014/09/30/article2455238.ece

If one goes a little deeper to study the iconography, artefacts and contemporary cultural activity of many Asian nations, it isn’t very difficult to believe there are verifiable historical links. Ancient Indian history is full of maritime trade with South-east Asia and the Gulf. The traders not only did business, but also took tangible and intangible Indian cultural artefacts like scripts, language and religion and brought back artefacts of other nations to India on ships.

Emeritus professor Kim Byung-Mo of the department of cultural anthropology at Hanyang University in South Korea has been looking for his roots. After a laborious 40 years of research, he was perhaps not surprised to find that he shared a “genetic connection” with the royal family of Ayodhya, a non-descript small city in UP.

In one of his interviews in India, he said, “For the last 40 years, I have been tracing the route taken by the princess between Ayodhya and Kimhae city and after five visits, I have all the evidence to culturally connect the two cities.”

He believes that not only him, but the entire Kara clan, which comprises about two-thirds of the population of Korea, are the descendents of Princess Huh Wang-Ock (Ho). Ho is believed to be the daughter of Ayodhya, who at the age of 16, travelled by sea in the 4th century AD from Ayodhya in India, to Kimhae city in Korea. There, she married King Kim Suro, the first king of Kara Dynasty and the founder of the ancient Korean Kingdom of Karak. They had 10 children of who nine became Buddhist monks.

More than a decade ago, the Korean government had declared Ayodhya as the sister city of Kimhae. They even established a monument in the memory of Princess Ho in Ayodhya. The plaque at the monument reads, “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.”

Her story is narrated in the ancient Korean history books, Samkuksaki and Samkukyusa. Her tomb is located in Kimhae, where 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. The particular kind of stone is not found anywhere in Korea. This stone is now part of crucial evidence that the princess belonged to the city of Ayodhya in India, where this stone is found.

The symbol of the Kaya Kingdom, of two fish kissing each other, is similar to that of the Mishra royal family of Ayodhya. It is also the state symbol of UP and is found on almost all the ancient buildings of Ayodhya. According to Prof. Kim, “The same twin fish symbol can also be seen in ancient buildings in Nepal, Pakistan, China and Japan and at the gate of the royal tomb of King Suro, in Kimhae city, in Korea.”