Heo Hwang-ok's rather unique background had been a subject of much discussion in South Korea among many historians. Despite her legendary status and numerous theories, most academics reject the story of Queen Heo due to historical, archaeological, and genetical inconsistencies.
Historical evidence 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 the
Samguk sagi lack mentions about an Indian princess arriving in Kaya 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. Scholars such as Kwang-soo Lee, a professor at
Busan University of Foreign Studies of Indian history stated 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. the book claims multiple accounts that revolves around events that happened almost a millennium before the foundation of the Goryeo kingdom. In addition to Kwang-soo Lee's analysis, journalists such as Yang-jae Lee also stated 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 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 less probable stemming from the same source material. making King Suro's supposed age of death (and his other claims) even more controversial. For the same reason, Cho heavily questioned Il-yeon's integrity and motives, and considered it to be one of the biggest reasons why the book is considered less credible than
Samguk sagi. (when in reality she was from
Buyeo), a baseless claim postulated by a Chinese guide, "Wang Fu (王黼)" that was intentionally dismissed by
Kim Pusik (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. However, other historians such as Kwang-soo Lee have also stated 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. According to the study,
Haplogroup M, a haplogroup that is found predominantly in people from the southern regions in Asia was found. The research team 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 stated 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. 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 (
Yayoi people and
Yemaek people) arrived and displaced them. Researchers pointed out that this ethnic group was mostly the ruling members of the Kaya confederacy The
MtDNA Haplogroup found in the 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 most likely royals of the Kaya 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. Due to the existence of M7 haplogroup found in the remains, it can be theorized that Heo Hwang-ok may be related to ancient Jōmon populations. 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."'' said Jeon Seong-won, the lead researcher of the project. According to the study, the Devil's Gate Cave's remains are closely related to Jōmon D4 and M haplogroups. In fact, Devil's Gate Cave is located in the land of ancient Korean kingdoms such as Dongbuyeo (
Eastern Buyeo),
Okjeo, and
Goguryeo, which the evidence hints that Jōmon ancestry has close relation to that of early inhabitants of Korea. Such abundance of M7 haplogroup found in Heo Hwang-ok's relatives' remains may signify a likely case that she came from the earliest traces of Jōmon ancestry, namely the progeny of Devil's Gate Cave (
Chertovy Vorota Cave) inhabitants in Dongbuyeo. It also coincides with the fact that within the
Samguk yusa, the boat Heo Hwang-ok arrived in "darted like an arrow," is representative of Goguryeo warfare arsenal as the sail and flag were colored red, similar to 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. 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. ==In popular culture==