India–South Korea relations

, from Buddhist heartland in northern India (dark orange) starting 5th century BCE, to Buddhist majority realm (orange), and historical extent of Buddhism influences (yellow). Mahāyāna (red arrow), Theravāda (green arrow), and Tantric-Vajrayāna (blue arrow). The overland and maritime "Silk Roads" were interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism". 25.00 postage stamp on Princess Suriratna (Queen Heo Hwang-ok ) was issued by India in 2019. 5.00 postage stamp on Queen Heo Hwang-ok (Princess Suriratna) was issued by India in 2019. Trade relations Indian diamond drilled carnelian beads have been discovered in Korea dating back to the proto three kingdoms period (100–669 CE). Buddhism in Korea Centuries after Buddhism originated in India, Mahayana Buddhism arrived in China through the Silk Road in the first century CE via Tibet, then to the Korean peninsula in the third century during the Three Kingdoms period, after which it was transmitted to Japan. In Korea, it was adopted as the state religion of three constituent polities of the Three Kingdoms period: the Goguryeo (Gaya) in 372 CE, the Silla in 528 CE, and the Baekje in 552 CE. In 526 CE, Korea monk Gyeomik went to India to learn Sanskrit and study the monastic discipline Vinaya, after which he founded the Gyeyul () branch of Buddhism which specializes in the study of Vinaya that derives directly from the Indian Vinaya School. The historical fact that people on the Indian subcontinent were familiar with Korea's customs and beliefs is amply testified by the records of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Yijing who reached India in 673. Yijing writes that Indians regarded Koreans as "worshipers of the rooster", a concept about Koreans that had been grounded in a legend of the Silla dynasty. A famous Korean visitor to India was Hyecho, a Korean Buddhist monk from Silla, one of the three Korean kingdoms of the period. On the advice of his Indian teachers in China, he set out for India in 723 CE to acquaint himself with the language and culture of the land of the Buddha. He wrote a travelogue of his journey in Chinese, Wang ocheonchukguk jeon, or An account of travel to the five Indian kingdoms. The work was long thought to be lost; however, a manuscript turned up among the Dunhuang manuscripts during the early 20th century. A rich merchant from the Ma'bar Sultanate, Abu Ali (P'aehali) 孛哈里 (or 布哈爾, Buhaer), was associated closely with the Ma'bar royal family. After falling out with them, he moved to Yuan dynasty China, married a Korean woman, and received a job from the Mongol emperor. His wife was formerly married to Sangha, a Tibetan, and her father was Ch'ae In'gyu during the reign of Chungnyeol of Goryeo, recorded in the Dongguk Tonggam, Goryeosa and Liu Mengyan's Zhong'anji. ==Modern relations==