Place · royal tomb & legend site · South Korea
Gimhae
Also known as Heo Hwang-ok, Kim Suro, Gaya, Gimhae — tomb of Queen Heo
The old capital of the Geumgwan Gaya confederacy in southern Korea, holding the tomb attributed to Queen Heo Hwang-ok, who the thirteenth-century Samguk Yusa says arrived by sea from a country it calls Ayuta and married King Suro in 48 CE.
- Function
- Burial and funerary
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 35.234, 128.889
Worth knowing
The tomb's stele carries a twin-fish emblem, which some writers have matched to the Pandya fish crest of Madurai; others read it as an ordinary East Asian motif. The Ayuta identification with Ayodhya is a modern reading of a thirteenth-century text about a first-century event, and a memorial to her was built at Ayodhya in 2001 on the strength of it.
Connections (2)
- FolkloreMadurai Meenakshi
The Samguk Yusa, compiled in Korea in the thirteenth century, says that in 48 CE a princess arrived by sea from a country called Ayuta and married King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, becoming Queen Heo Hwang-ok. Her tomb at Gimhae carries a twin-fish emblem that some writers match to the Pandya crest of Madurai and others read as an ordinary East Asian motif. The identification of Ayuta with Ayodhya is modern; on its strength a memorial was built at Ayodhya in 2001, and several million Koreans of the Kim and Heo lineages claim descent.
- AnalogueGorkha
The Gimhae tomb tradition and the Himalayan dynastic genealogies work the same way: a thirteenth-century Korean text derives a royal line from a foreign princess out of a country called Ayuta, as Nepali and Southeast Asian chronicles derive their houses from Indian kshatriya ancestors. The repository records the claim and where it is made, not the voyage.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Heo Hwang-ok”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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