Heo Hwang-ok (Korean: 허황옥; Hanja: 許黃玉; 32AD – 189AD) also known as Empress Boju (보주태후; 普州太后), was a legendary queen mentioned in Samguk yusa, a 13th-century Korean chronicle. According to Samguk Yusa, 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". Her native kingdom is believed to be located in India. There is a tomb in Gimhae, South Korea, that is believed to be hers, and a memorial in Ayodhya, India, built in 2020. The Ayuta Kingdom (아유타국; 阿踰陁國) is also considered as a misinterpretation of the Ay Kingdom, a vassal to the Pandyan Empire of the ancient Tamilakam, the predecessor of the modern-day Tamil Nadu in southern India.

The legend of Heo is found in Garakguk-gi (the Record of Garak Kingdom) which is currently lost, but referenced within the Samguk Yusa. According to the legend, Heo was a princess of the "Ayuta Kingdom". The extant records do not identify Ayuta except as a distant country. Written sources and popular culture often associate Ayuta with India with the help of Tamil Ancient texts Relating a Queen of Ay kingdom (Pandyan Empire in present day Tamilnadu) went on a voyage with her slaves on a boat to marry a Distant king. Byung-mo Kim, a professor and anthropologist at Hanyang University, linked Ayuta with Ayodhya in India based on phonetic similarity. but The theory was disproved as Ayodhya's actual name before 2000 years was Saketa, and hence, there must be no relation between Ayuta and Ayodhya. Grafton K. Mintz and Tae-hung Ha noted the phonetic similarities between Ayuta and the Ayutthaya Kingdom of Thailand, but supported the Indian origin theory by translating a passage as, "I am Princess of Ayuta (in India)". However, according to George Cœdès, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not founded until the year 1350, which was after the publication of Samguk Yusa. Others theorize that the Ayuta Kingdom (아유타국; 阿踰陁國) is a misinterpretation of the Ay Kingdom, a vassal to the Pandyan Empire of ancient Tamilakam as some sources allude to her coming from the southern part of India, but a consensus is yet to be reached. Despite numerous theories and claims, Queen Heo's true origin is yet to be discovered.

Contrary to popular belief in India, the name, Sembavalam, a Queen of Ay kingdom of Tamilnadu also called "Suriratna" (an Indian name usually assigned to the queen) does not appear in the Samguk Yusa and is in fact from a comic book called "Sri Ratna Kim Suro - The Legend of an Indian Princess in Korea" (2015) by Indian author Prasannan Parthasarathi. The name is based on the author's educated guess on the name "Hwang-ok" meaning Yellow Jade, making it "Suriratna", Tamil Ancient texts mentions about The queen Sembavalam set off to Korea on a boat with some of her slaves. Also, "Sembavalam" in Tamil means to Precious stone and "Suriratna" too means Precious Stone in Hindi. In reality, there is no historical evidence that backs this claim as the name, "Suriratna" alias Sembavalam allude to a South Indian origin revolving around Tamil. Regardless of its authenticity, the name was popularized in several news articles within Korea and India despite its contemporary origins and lack of mention in Samguk Yusa.

After their marriage, Heo told King Suro that she was 16 years old. She stated her given name as "Hwang-ok" ("Yellow Jade", 황옥, 黃玉) and her family name as "Heo" (허, or "Hurh" 許). She described how she came to Gaya as follows: the Heavenly Lord (Sange Je) appeared in her parents' dreams. He told them to send Heo to Suro, who had been chosen as the king of Gaya. The dream showed that the king had not yet found a queen. Heo's father then told her to go to Suro. After two months of a sea journey, she found Beondo, a peach which fruited only every 3.000 years.

According to the legend, the courtiers of King Suro had requested him to select a wife from among the maidens they would bring to the court. However, Suro stated that his selection of a wife will be commanded by the Heavens. He commanded Yuch'ŏn-gan to take a horse and a boat to Mangsan-do, an island to the south of the capital. At Mangsan, Yuch'ŏn saw a vessel with a red sail and a red flag. He sailed to the vessel, and escorted it to the shores of Kaya (or Gaya, present-day Gimhae). Another officer, Sin'gwigan went to the palace, and informed the King of the vessel's arrival. The King sent nine clan chiefs, asking them to escort the ship's passengers to the royal palace.

Princess Heo stated that she wouldn't accompany the strangers. Accordingly, the King ordered a tent to be pitched on the slopes of a hill near the palace. The princess then arrived at the tent with her courtiers and slaves. The courtiers included Sin Po (or Sin Bo, 신보, 申輔) and Cho Kwang (or Jo Gwang, 조광, 趙匡). Their wives were Mojong (모정, 慕貞) and Moryang (모량, 慕良) respectively. The twenty slaves carried gold, silver, jewels, silk brocade, and tableware and gems. Before marrying the king, the princess took off her silk trousers (mentioned as a skirt in a different section of Samguk Yusa) and offered them to the mountain spirit. King Suro tells her that he also knew about Heo's arrival in advance, and therefore, did not marry the maidens recommended by his courtiers.

When some of the Queen's escorts decided to return home, King Suro gave each of them thirty rolls of hempen cloth (one roll was of 40 yards). He also gave each person ten bags of rice for the return voyage. A part of the Queen's original convoy, including the two courtiers and their wives, stayed back with her. The queen was given a residence in the inner palace, while the two courtiers and their wives were given separate residences. The rest of her convoy were given a guest house of twenty rooms.

Allegedly, more than six million present-day Koreans, especially from Gimhae Kim, Gimhae Heo and Incheon Yi clans, trace their lineage to the legendary queen as the direct descendants of her 12 children with King Suro.

She requested Suro to let two of the children bear her maiden surname. Legendary genealogical records trace the origins of the Gimhae Heo to these two children. The Gimhae Kims trace their origin to the other eight sons, and so does the Yi clan of Incheon. The remaining two children were daughters who were married respectively to a son of Talhae and a noble from Silla.

According to the Jilburam, the remaining sons are said to have followed in their maternal uncle Po-ok's footsteps and devoted themselves to Buddhist meditation. They were named Hyejin, Gakcho, Jigam, Deonggyeon, Dumu, Jeongheong and Gyejang.

Kim Yoon-ok, wife of former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak who is from the Gimhae Kim clan, stated that she traces her ancestry to the royal family.

The tombs believed to be that of Heo Hwang-ok and Suro are located in Gimhae, South Korea. A pagoda traditionally held to have been brought to Korea on her ship is located near her grave. The Samguk Yusa reports that the pagoda was erected on her ship in order to calm the god of the ocean and allow the ship to pass. The unusual and rough form of this pagoda, unlike any other in Korea, may lend some credence to the account.

A passage in the Samguk Yusa indicates that King Jilji built a Buddhist temple for the ancestral Queen Heo on the spot where she and King Suro were married. He called the temple Wanghusa ("the Queen's temple") and provided it with ten gyeol of stipend land. A gyeol or kyŏl (결 or 結), varied in size from 2.2 acres to 9 acres (8,903–36,422 m2) depending upon the fertility of the land. The Samguk Yusa also records that the temple was built in 452. Since there is no other record of Buddhism having been adopted in 5th-century Gaya, modern scholars have interpreted this as an ancestral shrine rather than a Buddhist temple.

In 2001, a Memorial of Heo Hwang-ok was inaugurated by a Korean delegation, which included over a hundred historians and government representatives. In 2016, a Korean delegation proposed to develop the memorial. The proposal was accepted by then-Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav. On November 6, 2018, on the eve of Diwali celebration, South Korea's First Lady Kim Jung-sook, laid the foundation stone for the expansion and beautification of the existing memorial. She offered tribute at the Queen Heo Memorial, attended a ceremony for the upgrade and beautification of the memorial and attended an elaborate Diwali celebration at Ayodhya along with the present Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, that included cultural shows and lighting of 300,000+ lights on the banks of Sarayu River.

Reportedly, hundreds of South Koreans visit Ayodhya every year to pay homage to their legendary Queen Heo Hwang-ok.

Ayodhyan native Theory

Despite her connections to the two countries, there are no historical texts or official records in India that indicate an Indian princess traveling to Korea at the time including the country under the name Ayuta, her supposed country of birth. This ultimately makes her entire existence become solely dependent on the accounts made in Korea.

However, many Indian historians emphasize on Heo Hwang-ok's legacy that links India to Korea today rather than validating her actual existence in history.

Pandyan Dynasty Theory:

Ancient Tamil Texts have a strong proof about the Ancient Pandyan Queen Sembavalam of the "Ay" Dynasty embarked on a voyage with some of her slaves to a distant country and never returned. And We can find a Emblem of Fish in the flag of Gaya Dynasty which was also found in the Flag of Pandyan Dynasty. Hence it is clearly proved that her native is Ayuthha, a small Town of Ay kingdom under Pandyan Empire in present day Tamilnadu. If the theory comes into concern, the Ayodhya theory would be disproved. Hence confirmly Indian Government and Other researchers manipulate to reveal the truth, leaving the question unanswered.

Heo Hwang-ok's rather unique background had been a subject of much discussion in South Korea among many historians. Despite her legendary status, many historians reject the idea that Queen Heo truly existed and have debunked her travel routes several times throughout history.

The first criticism stems from the fact that her existence is solely based on the accounts made in Samguk Yusa, a book that is widely regarded to be mostly fictional. Other older and more historically accurate sources such as Samguk Sagi lack mentions about an Indian princess arriving in Gaya and marrying the king. It is believed that the writer of Samguk Yusa, Il-yeon exaggerated much of the claims to create a sense of familiarity towards Buddhism being a Buddhist monk himself. Many scholars also pointed out that due to the lack of technology to properly reach the Korean peninsula from ancient India at the time, her arrival would have been nearly impossible or at least, extremely difficult. One of the biggest critique stems from the book Garakguk-gi itself. Being written during the Goryeo Dynasty (the same period of Samguk Yusa's publication), the book claims multiple accounts that revolves around events that happened almost a millennium before the foundation of the Goryeo kingdom. Many historians state that since Samguk Yusa and Garakguk-gi are both second hand accounts written in the same time period, the cross referencing needs to be carefully examined and researchers must remain skeptical.

The consensus is that the existence of an Indian princess was very unlikely and that much of the stories found in Samguk Yusa were fabricated for political and religious reasons in Gaya at the time. The same book claims that King Suro lived up to 157 years old and transformed into an eagle and a hawk to fight off his rivals according to the supposed Garakguk-gi, making her story even less credible stemming from the same source material. Some have claimed that Queen Heo truly existed not as a foreign Indian, but as a native Korean. This claim suggests that Garakgukgi (and in turn Samguk Yusa) alludes to the deification of King Suro by exaggerating much of his accomplishments to that of the supernatural. For further context, the only King to be officially recognized as the longest reigning monarch of Korea was King Jangsu (literal translation of "Long Life King") who lived up to the age of 97, making King Suro's supposed age of death (and his other claims) even more questionable. Following this theory, it can be deduced that Queen Heo's Korean ethnicity was elevated to that of the Indian heritage to create a sense of uniqueness since marrying a royal princess from India, the birthplace of Buddha and Buddhism would be considered as a major accomplishment for the king of a Buddhist nation.

Il-yeon's exaggerations found in Samguk Yusa are often criticized by historians for falsely labelling royals (especially female individuals) of past Korean kingdoms as foreigners and is one of the biggest reasons why the book is considered less credible than Samguk Sagi. In addition to Queen Heo, Il-yeon also knowingly mislabeled Lady Saso as being Chinese in his book (when in reality she was from Buyeo), a baseless rumor that was intentionally dismissed by Kim Bu-sik (the author of Samguk Sagi and the first to have heard this rumor) during his visit to the Song dynasty which Il-yeon took note after looking into Kim's posthumous records over five decades later and had it published in his own Samguk Yusa.

Others have also pointed out the reason behind her supposed journey to the Korean kingdom being too vague. Many historians agree that the influence of India and Buddhism was profound for ancient Korean kingdoms at the time as many of them treated artifacts originating from India to be sacred. However, historians have also pointed out that the agency of an Indian princess coming to Korea across the sea on a boat was very peculiar as ancient Korea was less known to India than countries such as ancient China. Professor Ki-hwan Lee suggested that the story of Heo Hwang-ok was dramatized to elevate Gaya's stature of the Buddhist scene among the Korean kingdoms and to associate the sacred artifacts they possessed to something closer to that of the Indian culture.

Recent excavations led by Professor Byung-mo Kim at Hanyang University in 2018 discovered that the evidence which allegedly proved the existence of Queen Heo such as the famous relic resembling a pair of fish that was carved onto the tomb's gate, originated from Babylon rather than Ayuta, further discrediting the possibilities of the queen being more than just a religious symbol. He added that despite much efforts to find any substantial evidence that linked the relics to Queen Heo's possible existence, the sheer commonness of the relics being found across all of Asia (starting from present-day Iraq to the Japanese archipelago), he concluded that the relics did not originate from ancient India, but rather the aforementioned ancient Babylon. Professor Kim added that engraving a depiction of a pair of fish was an ancient ritual stemming from a Babylonian belief that was thought to have brought eternal prosperity and marital happiness to the individuals who were blessed.

In 2004, a research team in Korea conducted a genetic analysis into the remains of the supposed descendants of King Suro and Queen Heo. According to the study, Haplogroup M, a haplogroup that is found predominantly in people from the southern regions in Asia was found. Researchers claimed that the remains of the tombs possessed the Haplogroup M7 family, the same haplogroup which is passed on through maternal lineages that could be found in the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia. They stressed that modern Koreans in general possessed at most around 5% of this DNA while the remains found in the tombs had a much higher frequency of it, thus supporting the idea that the descendants could trace their origins to a foreign lineage including that of India, aligning with the story found in Samguk Yusa. However, they also noted that the haplogroup demographic was too large to locate a specific origin and was cautious as to definitively claiming that the remains were in fact of Indian origin. They stated that additional research was needed in the future to draw a conclusive argument.

Almost two decades later in 2022, further research was conducted as to the origins of the Korean people, where a study discovered that the Korean peninsula included many ethnic groups during its ancient times, specifically during the Three Kingdoms period. According to the study, Korea was mostly occupied by people originating from Northern China (Manchuria and Siberia) but also had native people from the south that bore close resemblance to the Jōmon people of Japan who had inhabited the peninsula before the northern population arrived and displaced them. Researchers pointed out that this ethnic group was mostly the ruling members of the Gaya confederacy and had a profound impact in both language and culture within the region (see Peninsular Japonic).

MtDNA Haplogroup Jōmon people is characterized by the presence of Haplogroup M7a (a branch halpgroup that is part of the bigger M7 strand). It can be deduced that the remains used in the research conducted in 2004 were in fact royals of the Gaya confederacy who bore genetic resemblance to the Jōmon population. Thus, the reason for the discovery of the M7 haplogroup in their tombs and the researchers concluding a foreign origin was proposed.

As the M7 haplogroup was enriched in the study of the remains, one imagines that Heo Hwang-ok can be related to ancient Jōmon ancestry. According to a 2017 study published in Scientific Advances by the University of Cambridge and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), “the type of mitochondria genome found in the Devil’s Gate Cave people is nearly the same as that found in Koreans. You could say the cave people are almost like the ancestors of Koreans.” This was said by Jeon Seong-won, the researcher that led the project. In the study itself, the authors state that the Devil's Gate Cave's remains closely relate to Jōmon D4 and M haplogroups. Actually, Devil's Gate Cave is located in the land of ancient Korean kingdoms such as Dongbuyeo (Eastern Buyeo), Okjeo, and Goguryeo, and the evidence hints that Jōmon ancestry has close relation to that of early Koreans. If Heo Hwang-ok's M7 haplogroup is so largely enriched, then it could be likely that she came from the earliest traces of Jōmon ancestry, namely the progeny of Devil's Gate Cave (Chertovy Vorota Cave) inhabitants in Dongbuyeo. Some additional tidbits to entertain thought are that in the Samguk Yusa, the boat Heo Hwang-ok arrived in "darted like an arrow," which is representative of Goguryeo warfare, the sail and flag were colored red, which was Goguryeo's military colors, and a courtier's name was Sinpo, which is the name of a North Korean city on the eastern coast of present-day Goguryeo.

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There could be political reason for a Dongbuyeo royalty to marry the Gaya founding king. Historians have started to think that the second king of Goguryeo, Yuri of Goguryeo, may have usurped Jumong's dynastic rule. Thus, due to Goguryeo's succession turmoil, there could be a Gaya queen originating from Buyeo. This could be possibly King Taejodae of Goguryeo's mother--Queen Mother Buyeo (whose name is unknown)--who kept her title as Empress (Boju) with a small phonetic change and attachment of "주 (ju)" meaning state to yield 보주태후. It could explain her title as empress as a motivation to unite the Korean Peninsula, which would be weaker if viewed as an Indian origin because of her lack of ability to govern the Indian state. Furthermore, the name of the Ayuta Kingdom in Hanja, 阿踰陁國, translated character-by-character has a potential meaning of "mountain - to exceed - steep bank - state." The character 踰 is known to modify the entity written before it which is mountain. Taken together, Ayuta Kingdom could have a written meaning of "a steep bank state to exceed mountain" which could be the political conflict between Goguryeo, located in a mountain region, and Dongbuyeo, located next to a neighboring sea and in a quickly changing elevation due to the neighboring Hamgyong Mountains. It is interesting as supporting evidence that the Heo clan's familially related royal clans, Gimhae Kim clan and Incheon Lee clan, play important roles in unifying the Korean peninsula as Silla by assuming the lead commander of Silla forces that defeat Goguryeo (Kim Yu-sin) and diplomatically helping the Tang Emperor escape the An Lushan rebellion (Heo Ki, later Yi Heo-ki). This diplomatic event could have had an impact on Silla's own efforts to engage the Tang Dynasty to unify the southern peninsula with Goguryeo in the north as the single Silla kingdom in the Goguryeo-Tang War.

Not only did Heo-Ki begin the Incheon Yi clan, but also the Incheon Yi clan supposedly became the most powerful clan during Goryeo's existence through its multitude of marriages with the Goryeo ruling dynasty and influence in Goryeo's court. There is also a known myth that the Incheon Yi clan can be the predecessor of Joseon's ruling Jeonju Yi clan. Some evidence is that an Incheon Yi leader was the Joseon National Duke and also that Hanyang, also known today as Seoul, and Joseon as a whole nearly became under Incheon Yi rule if it were not for a stroke of bad luck. Together, one can entertain the possibility that Heo Hwang-ok originated from Buyeo and was a Goguryeo royal that married the founder of the Gaya Kingdom in the Southern Korean Peninsula. With the intention of unifying the peninsula as an empress, Heo Hwang-ok and her legacy can be considered historically by the highest political reaches in Gaya confederacy, possibly in the predecessorial Goguryeo and Buyeo kingdoms, as well as in the unified Korean states of Silla, Goryeo, and Joseon.

Despite the historical, archaeological and genealogical inaccuracies surrounding her existence, many Korean historians stated that her iconic image as a legendary figure should persist as a means for the two countries to remain on good terms.

• Portrayed by Seo Ji-hye in the 2010 MBC TV series Kim Su-ro, The Iron King.
• In February 2019, India and Korea signed an agreement on releasing a joint stamp, commemorating Queen Heo Hwang-ok.
• Indian Council for Cultural Relations is releasing book that includes contact between foreign cultures and India, which mentions the story of Queen Heo Hwang-ok.

• Lady Saso
• Three Kingdoms of Korea
• Buddhist temples in South Korea
• Geumgwan Gaya
• Byeonhan confederacy
• Indians in Korea
• Koreans in India
• India–South Korea relations
• India–North Korea relations
• Korean mythology

• Tomb of Queen Suro