The Legend of Princess Suriratna

Before high school, my exposure to Korean language and culture was limited to whatever K-pop I listened to and the few K-dramas I watched. With the few Apink, 2NE1, SHINee, and BTS songs that appeared in my playlists, my listening to K-pop was less intentional than it was incidental-- listening to the music for its sound rather than the fact that it was K-pop. It was only when I was in the eighth grade that I began to delve deeper into studying Korean.

I remember that day; my friend Hyun Ji and I were waiting for our parents to pick us up from badminton practice. She got a phone call from her mom, and they began conversing in Korean. I accidentally overheard her say eomma (엄마) and appa (아빠). I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on their conversation but I was so intrigued by the fact that she and I had similar names for our parents. In other languages, I’ve mostly heard different variations of “mama” and “papa” for mother and father, but I had never heard before anyone calling their parents amma (அம்மா) or appa (அப்பா) unless they spoke Tamil. The fact that names for parents were so similar in Korean and Tamil prompted me to begin studying both languages in depth, and I haven’t stopped ever since.

I have a special affinity for the Korean language and culture-- both are so similar to those of Tamil, they almost feel related to each other.

Legend has it, according to the Samguk yusa (a 13th Century collection of legends, folktales and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea), a princess --known in India as Suriratna, and in Korea as Heo Hwang-Ok-- arrived in Korea by ship. Her father, the king of Ayuta, had a dream in which God told him to send his daughter to a distant land and get her married off to the prince in Korea. Allegedly, the prince --King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya-- disregarded suggestions by his advisors to choose a maiden from the area to be his queen; he claimed that his match would be sent by Providence. When she did arrive, she was said to be around 16 years old. The king and his queen had twelve children together, ten of whom were given the last name Kim and the other two given the queen’s last name, Heo. More than six million present-day Koreans, especially from Gimhae Kim, Heo and Lee (Yi) clans, trace their lineage to the legendary queen as the direct descendants of Queen Heo Hwang-ok. There is a tomb in Gimhae, Korea, that is believed by some to be hers, and a memorial in Ayodhya in India, of which many Koreans visit to worship their legendary ancestor.

While people believe that the aforementioned kingdom of Ayuta refers to modern-day Ayodhya in northern India, Ayodhya was actually known as Saketa in the 13th Century, and was only renamed much later in history. Additionally, there are no records of Heo Hwang-Ok located at Ayodhya. There have been speculations that Ayuta was actually Ayutthaya in Thailand, however, the Thai city was not founded until the year 1350, after the composition of Samguk Yusa.

There is growing speculation that the kingdom of Ayuta is referring to the historical kingdom of Kanyakumari, located at the tip of Southern India, as it was formerly known as Ayuta Nadu. The ruling kingdom in 13th Century South India was the Pandhyas, and they had the symbol of two fishes on their flags. In Korea, the symbol is present in a lot of places, and it is referred to as Ssangeomun. The ancient officials used this symbol in their coins. Additionally, South India was a hub for marine trade with the rest of Southeast and East Asia, and since Ayuta was known to be a seafaring society, it is very likely that Ayuta is referring to the society located at the southern tip of India with the symbol of two fishes.

Considering the somewhat mythical nature of the Samguk Yusa, these stories have questionable historical accuracy. However, considering Tamil is one of the oldest surviving classical languages in the world and evidence of trade between South India and the rest of Asia, significant interactions between Tamil and Korean society are likely to have occurred.

Korean and Tamil are agglutinative and follow the subject-verb-object order. They are said to have over 1500 words that sound similar and have similar meanings. Here are some examples of English words with their respective Korean and Tamil translations:


elder sister
eonni [언니]
anni [அண்ணி]

mother (or formal word for older woman)
eomoni [어머니]
ammani [அம்மணி]

“a little”
jogeum [조금]
konjum [கொஞ்சம்]

“come here”
iri wa [이리 와]
inge wa [இங்கே வா]

grass
pul [풀]
pul [புல்]

day
nal [날]
nal [நாள்]

“oh!”
aigo [아이고]
aiyo [ஐயோ]

to go
gada [가다]
kada [கட]

this __
igeot [이것]
idhu [இது]

hair
meori [머리]
mudi [முடி]

I, me
na [나]
na [நா]

you
neo, nega, niga [너, 네가, 니가]
ni, ninga [நீ, நீங்க]

grasshopper
mettugi [메뚜기]
vettukili [வெட்டுக்கிளி]

one
eoneu [어느]
onnu [ஒண்ணு]

fight
sauda [싸우다]
sandai [சண்டை]

rice
sal [쌀]
soru [சோறு]

sore
apeun [아픈]
pun [புண்]

mind
maeum [마음]
manam [மனம்]

close, cover
mudu [묻우]
mudu [மூடு]

country
nara [나라]
nadu [நாடு]

golden
hwanggeum [황금]
thangam [தங்கம்]

tooth
ippal [이빨]
pal [பல்]


Some Random Cultural Similarities:
Both cultures have primarily rice-based meals.
The traditional game played with five stones is played in both regions, called konggi in Korean and majoratam in Tamil.
The Korean drum dance is very similar to Thappattam of Tamil.
Korean kimchi and Tamil oorugai are essentially the same thing, with kimchi being made of cabbage and oorugai made of mangoes.
Tamil and Korean culture both share a type of rice wine. In Tamil, it's called sunda kanji, and in Korean it is called makgeolli.
Korean and Tamil cuisine both have a rice cake, called tteok in Korean and kozhukattai in Tamil.
Both regions have Buddhist influence in their cultures.


There are around 5000 kilometers between South Korea and South India, and there very well may not be any link between the two countries. Princess Suriratna may have been entirely a myth and the similarities between the two cultures could be purely coincidental. Still, as someone of South Indian descent, I often feel like I get left out of my Asian-American community. The fact that there are these cultural and linguistic links between my people and other another people in a totally different part of Asia makes me feel like maybe we aren’t so different after all.