Love of Ashoka’s Queen

Love of Asoka's Queen

Sham S. Misri

In Buddhist literature there appears in the tale of the love of Asoka's queen for Kunala, son of her co-queen, Padmavati. On his refusal to accept her advances, the queen, to whom her husband, the emperor, had offered any boon she chose, asked to be allowed to assume royal power for seven days. During this time she sent officers to Taksasila and had Kunala blinded. He appeared before his father in the guise of a lute-player, was recognised, and the queen was burnt to death. The same authority refers to the tale of Sarangdhara, who rejected the advances of his stepmother, and when she complained to the king, it was ordered that his limbs should be cut off, and that he should be exposed to wild beasts, a fate from which he was saved only by a miraculous Voice from Heaven. 

Kunala  was a son of Emperor Asoka and Queen Padmavati and the likely heir to Asoka, 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, because she wanted to have erotic relations with him.

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 Ujjain 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. It is said that with the letter Kunal went to his father. This made King Ashoka angry, finding out that his wife had changed the letter, he sentenced her to death. Years later Kunala came to Ashoka's court dressed as a musician accompanied by his favourite wife Kanchanmala. When he greatly pleased the king by his music, the king wanted to reward him. At this, the musician 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?" "Samprati" (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. After the demise of Dasharatha, Samprati did indeed become Emperor.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunala