A Brief Background of Ayodhya : 

In 2024, we are hearing about Ayodhya all over the world because of India having reinstated the famous temple of Ram. But before we speak of how it came to be that many thousands of today’s Koreans have the same genes as King Mishra of Ayodhya, it would be good to know of Ayodhya’s rich and famous history. 

Ayodhya is the setting for the ancient Hindu text – the Ramayana-which is an ancient Hindu scripture, revered by most Hindus. It is composed and written in Sanskrit by Sage Valmiki. The story itself is much older and had been passed down orally for generations before Valmiki composed it in written form. Sage Valmiki wrote the Ramayana between 700 BCE and 400 BCE. 

Although today Ayodhya is not considered a major Metropolis in India like Mumbai or Delhi, most Hindus like myself grew up knowing of Ayodhya because it was Lord  Ram’s kingdom. 

Ayodhya’s history goes back for thousands of years, during which time, it was under the rule of many different dynasties. The earliest dynasty was the Ikshvaku dynasty, with King Dasharatha and his son Rama as its most famous rulers.

The Mishra dynasty was another. King Mishra and his descendants ruled for about 100 years.  

Other dynasties that shaped Ayodhya’s rich history were the Gupta and the Maurya dynasties. We learned about these famous rulers in school but we did not know of King Mishra and how he came to be connected to the island of Korea. 

A KOREAN DELEGATION COMES TO AYODHYA

I first heard this story when I read articles in the Times of India and India Abroad (between 2000 and 2005) about a delegation of 100 high-level government officials from South Korea, who came unexpectedly to India. They traveled to  Ayodhya and looked for any descendants of King Mishra. They brought with them DNA records from Korea. 

They determined that a poor farmer was the King’s closest surviving descendant. This farmer, Mishra, was astonished at the instant fame and publicity he received, not to mention the wealth. The Koreans  showered him with lavish gifts, and millions of dollars. They told him that he was the direct descendant of King Mishra of Ayodhya from about 50 A.D. King Mishra, they  announced, was their ancestor, and the ancestor of the largest group of Koreans!

They also donated 40 million dollars to make Ayodhya a Sister City to the City of Kimhae, Korea. They asked Mr. Mishra to travel back and forth between Ayodhya and Korea as their ambassador.

THE STORY OF PRINCESS GAURI MISHRA : 

Their story is as follows: King Mishra of Ayodhya was an extremely wealthy, powerful, and pious King of ancient India. Ayodhya was the capital of Lord Ram, the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu. King Mishra had one daughter whose name was Gauri, meaning as gentle and pure as a cow. One morning the King awoke from a dream, in which he was instructed by divine sources, so he related, that he should send his daughter by ship to a small hither to unknown island in the East. There she should marry the head of the tribal people. King Mishra’s court and his family were shocked that the King would send his only daughter, the heir to his powerful throne, faraway to an island not even neighboring his kingdom. But the pious king obeyed his dictate and sent his daughter Gauri, along with her brother, and an escort of a powerful Naval Fleet and many valiant warriors along with them. He also sent teachers of various academic subjects and martial arts. Many lavish and opulent gifts were sent to the island along with his daughter. He told her to marry the chief of the tribes there. Gauri was only 16 years old.

At the same time, on the island, the King of the people was King Suro. He had hitherto refused to marry any local girl, to the dismay of all around him. He proclaimed that a divine source had told him that his wife would descend from the heavens and come across the ocean  to him. He announced repeatedly that he would wait until such a person came to him. The island and it’s people were not wealthy or powerful. 

One day, many people ran to him from the beachhead with information that a great armada had landed and among them was a Princess as he had predicted. He ordered that the Princess and her escorts be brought before him.

To his surprise, the 16-year-old sent a message back to him that she expected the respect that was due her as a woman and a Princess. Amazed and impressed, King Suro sent his men to build a camp with tents  for Gauri and her warrior-escorts. After they were settled, he formally invited them and escorted them into his abode. They were soon married. The country then became known as Gauriya, and now it is known as Korea.

The King and Queen, who was called Queen Huh or Queen Heo, in Gauriya, had 10 sons and two daughters. There are now six million descendents from this Princess of Ayodhya. This is the largest clan of Koreans and extremely well known and respected. They are the prominent leaders of Korea. They are well known in Korea as the Kimhae Kims or the Kimhae Huhs. They include President Kim Dae Jund and Prime Minister Jong Pil Kim.

The royal seal of Ayodhya is two fish kissing each other. This is also the symbol in Korea.

Gauri had taken with her one single plant of tea and that is how Korea got its tea.

Princess Gauri  had also brought with her some special stones to “keep the waters of the ocean calm while they sailed.” These are the only stones found now in Korea that are indigenous to Ayodhya and were used as one of the bases for the Korean delegation to determine where the Princess came from, along with genetic DNA testing.

This story was fascinating to me because it shows how, no matter how different we look or how different cultures maybe after thousands of years, ultimately it will be shown that we all come from the same cradle Perhaps the future generations can use this knowledge to work together as a united world among brothers and sisters instead of the wars and fighting we are seeing now

REFERENCES: 

1. Iryeon, pages 161 to 164. Samguk–Yusa, Seoul. Yonsei University Press.( the Samguk Yusa is a 13th century Korean text ) 
2. ISBN 8971410175.
3. Times of India 15-05-2005.
4. India Abroad 14-05-2000.

NOTES: 

1. I have not found any conclusive evidence that King Mishra had a navy, leave alone an Armada. Ayodhya is located in present-day Uttar Pradesh in India, and it’s not close to the sea. However, Ayodhya has several rivers and tributaries, such as the Tamsa river. 

 It’s possible that King Mishra used the rivers for smaller-scale navigation.  

1. The legend of a divine source causing King Mishra to send his daughter Gauri to Korea with an armada is mentioned in some Chinese-language texts, and also some ancient Indian literature. 

iii. The story of King Suro and Gauri (also known as Princess Heo or Empress Boju in Korean) is mentioned in a number of Korean texts, including the Samguk yusa, a  Korean book of legends and historical stories. The tale of King Suro, the founder of Geumgwan Gaya, features prominently  in various folktales and legends that have been passed down over the centuries.

1. Interestingly, some scholars believe that the “Ayuta Kingdom” mentioned in these stories refers to  Ayodhya. 
2. The  mayors of Ayodhya and Gimhae City signed a Sister-City Bond in 2001. Since then the two cities have been working to strengthen their historical and cultural ties.
3. South Korea sent a delegation to Ayodhya to celebrate the Ram Mandir’s Pran Pratishtha ceremony on January 22, 2024.  The delegation made a special effort to recognize and honor the descendants of King Mishra, relatives of Princess Heo (Queen Suriratna). 

South Korea has kept up this connection over the past 25 or so years, since their genealogists determined their origin from King Mishra. It  really speaks to the strength of the bond between these two cultures. It just goes to show that history can be full of unexpected and heartwarming surprises!