B'alaj Chan K'awiil

B'alaj Chan K'awiil
Born	October 15, 625
Other names	Ruler 1, Flint Sky God K and Malah Chan K'awil
Title	King of Dos Pilas
Successor	Itzamnaaj B'alam
Spouse(s)	Lady of Itzan Lady Bulu'
Children	Itzamnaaj B'alam Itzamnaaj K'awiil Wak Chanil Ajaw
Parent(s)	Tikal king
Relatives	K'ak' Tiliw Chan Chaak (likely grandson)

B'alaj Chan K'awiil (October 15, 625 – ??), was a Maya ruler of Dos Pilas. He is also known as Ruler 1, Flint Sky God K and Malah Chan K'awil.

He claimed to be a member of the Tikal royal line. On Dos Pilas Panel 6 he names a king of Tikal as his father, this was probably the 23rd or 24th ruler of Tikal. He probably saw himself as the legitimate heir to the Tikal throne and defected from Tikal in AD 648 to found Dos Pilas as a rival kingdom under the overlordship of Calakmul.

B'alaj Chan K'awiil began his program of monumental inscriptions in 682, recording his travails and ultimate victory.

Mystery cloaks the circumstances under which B'alaj Chan K'awiil became the first known ruler of a previously uninhabited site in the Petexbatún. Inscriptions at Dos Pilas make it clear that he eventually swore allegiance to Calakmul, and this during the time of Tikal's Hiatus when Calakmul might well have involved itself directly in the royal succession at Tikal. This led to speculation that B'alaj Chan K'awiil might have been a ruler of Tikal under the aegis of Calakmul who was driven out by a rival lineage.

B'alaj Chan K'awiil had two wives - Lady of Itzan and Lady Bulu'.

A daughter of B'alaj Chan K'awiil, Wak Chanil Ajaw, left Dos Pilas to found a dynasty at Naranjo. Another daughter (or perhaps a sister) married into the royal lineage of Arroyo de Piedra.

B'alaj Chan K'awiil was a father of Itzamnaaj B'alam and Itzamnaaj K'awiil and likely a grandfather of K'ak' Tiliw Chan Chaak.

Dos Pilas Stela 9, dated to AD 682, bears the only known portrait of this king.

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