Kunala (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: ) (263 BC – ?) was a son of Emperor

Ashoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, s ...

and Queen Padmavati and the presumptive heir to Ashoka, thus the heir to the

Mauryan Empire The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

which once ruled almost all of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India ...

. 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 Tishyaraksha or Tissarakkhā (c. 3rd century BCE) was the last wife of the third Mauryan emperor, Ashoka. According to the ''Ashokavadana'', she was responsible for blinding Ashoka's son and heir presumptive Kunala. She married Ashoka four year ...

, at a young age in jealousy. While he was not able to take the throne, his son,

Samprati Samprati () was the 5th Emperor of the Maurya dynasty. He was the son of 3rd Mauryan Emperor Ashoka's blind son, Kunala, and succeeded his cousin, 4th Mauryan Emperor Dasharatha, as emperor of the Maurya Empire. He built 1,50,000 Jain Derasars ...

, became his heir. Kunala also served as the

Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...

Taxila Taxila or Takshashila (; sa, तक्षशिला; pi, ; , ; , ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area a ...

during the reign of his father, having been appointed to the position in 235 BC.

Significance of name

Kunala also means "bird with beautiful eyes", "someone who sees beauty in everything" or "one with beautiful eyes".

Early life

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 Asandhamitra was a queen and chief consort of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka The Great. She was Ashoka's second wife and first queen consort Given the title "agramahisi", or "Chief Queen", Asandhimitra was likely from a royal family. She did not have ...

, 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 Ujjain (, Hindustani pronunciation: �d͡ːʒɛːn is a city in Ujjain district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth-largest city in Madhya Pradesh by population and is the administrative centre of Ujjain district and Ujjai ...

, to be brought up and carry out his princely education, to become the heir to the throne of the

Blinding

When the prince was eight years old, the king wrote (in

Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usua ...

) to the tutors and mentioned the word: Adheetaam - Meaning "He(Kunala) must study"(Context: 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', which changed the word to Andheetaam - Meaning "He(Kunala) 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". Alternatively, some stories explain that Kunala had been sent to Taxila to put down a rebellion, which he managed to do peacefully. But he was similarly blinded through the treacherousness of Ashoka's wife

. It is said by some scholars that the letter was sent to Kunal; not believing it, Kunal went to his father. This made King Ashoka angry, finding out that his wife had changed the letter, he sentenced her to death. Kunal then became heir to the throne of Mauryan Empire. It is uncertain whether this is true.

Attempts to claim throne

Years later Kunala came to Ashoka's court dressed as a minstrel accompanied by his favourite wife Kanchanmala. When he greatly pleased the king by his music, the king wanted to reward him. At this, the minstrel revealed himself as prince Kunala and demanded his inheritance. Ashoka sadly objected that being blind, Kunala never could ascend the throne. Thereupon the latter said that he claimed the kingdom not for himself but for his son. "When," cried the king, "has a son been born to you?" "

" (meaning "Just now") was the answer. Samprati accordingly was the name given to Kunala's son, and though a baby, he was appointed Ashoka's successor. However, when Ashoka died, Samprati was too young to rule. Therefore, Ashoka was succeeded by another, older grandson,

Dasharatha Dasharatha (Sanskrit: दशरथ, IAST: Daśaratha; born Nemi) was the king of the Kosala kingdom and a scion of the Suryavamsha dynasty in Hinduism. He ruled from this capital at Ayodhya. Dasharatha was the son of Aja and Indumati. He ha ...

. After the demise of Dasharatha, Samprati did indeed become Emperor. It is said that Prince Kunala established a kingdom in the Mithila region on the Indo-Nepal Border. It might be the same place where the present village, Kunauli (earlier known as Kunal Gram) at the bank of Kosi river on the Indo-Nepal Border is situated. There are some historical and archaeological evidences to support this claim.

Portrayal in popular media

A semi-fictionalized portrayal of Kunal's life was produced as a motion picture under the title ''

Veer Kunal ''Veer Kunal'' (Valiant Kunal) also called ''Son Of Ashoka'' is a 1945 Hindi historical fiction film directed by Kishore Sahu. Besides directing the film Sahu also produced it and wrote the story and screenplay. The cinematographer was Chandu. ...

'' (1941). ''

Ashok Kumar Kumudlal Ganguly (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), better known by his stage name Ashok Kumar and also by Dadamoni, was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema and who was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family. He ...

'', a Tamil film was produced in 1941 based on the life of Kunal. Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 1998, p. 288.

References