Kunal
| Kunala | |
|---|---|
| Crown prince of the Maurya Empire | |
| Born | 263 BC |
| Spouse | Kanchanamala |
| Issue | Samprati |
| Dynasty | Maurya |
| Father | Ashoka |
| Mother | Padmavati |
Kunala (IAST: Kuṇāla ) (263 BC - ?) was a son of Emperor Ashoka and Queen Padmavati and the presumptive heir to Ashoka, thus the heir to the Mauryan Empire which once ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent. After the departure of Mahendra, Ashoka's eldest son, he was supposed to be the heir to the empire, but was blinded by his step-mother, Tishyaraksha, at a young age in jealousy. While he was not able to take the throne, his son, Samprati, became his heir.
Kunala also served as the Viceroy of Taxila during the reign of his father, having been appointed to the position in 235 BC.
The name Kunal in many Indian languages means "Eagle". Kuṇāla is also the name of a Himalayan bird, the 'Painted Snipes'. The most famous meaning of Kunal is in Sanskrit which is "Lotus". Kunal also means "bird with beautiful eyes", "someone who sees beauty in everything" or "one with beautiful eyes".
Due to the death of his birth mother, Padmavati, within a few months of his birth, he was raised by Ashoka's chief queen consort Asandhimitra, who loved him like her own son. Due to this, Asandhimitra is often mistaken to be his birth mother. At the age of eight, Ashoka sent his son to Ujjain, to be brought up and carry out his princely education, to become the heir to the throne of the Mauryan Empire.
When the prince was eight years old, the king wrote (in Prakrit) to the tutors that Kunala should begin his studies. One of Ashoka's wives who wanted to secure the succession to her own son, being then present, took up the letter to read it. She secretly put a dot over the letter 'a', changed Adheeyu into Andheeyu—another word, meaning he must be blinded. Without rereading the letter, the king sealed and dispatched it. The clerk in Ujjayini was so shocked by the contents of this letter that he was unable to read it aloud to the prince. Kunala, therefore, seized the letter and read the cruel sentence of his father. Considering that as yet no Maurya prince had disobeyed the chief of the house, and unwilling to set a bad example, he stoutly put out his eyesight with a hot iron".
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Wikipedia