Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/262

Rh THE STORY OF KUNÂLA

In the seventh century pilgrims were shown a stûpa at Taxila, which was said to have been built by Asoka to mark the spot wl1ere the eyes of his beloved son Kunâla were torn out. The story of Kunâla is to the following effect.

After the death of his faithful eonsort Asandhimitrâ, King Asoka, late in life, married Tishyarakshitâ, a dissolute and unprincipled young woman. She cast amorous glanees on her stepson Kunâla, her worthy predecessor's son, who was famous for the beauty of his eyes. The virtuous prince rejected with horror the advances made by his stepmother, Who then became filled with 'the spite of contemned beauty ,' and charged her hot love into bitter hate. In pursuance of a deep-laid scheme for the destruction of him who by his virtue had put her viee to’shame, the queen with honied words persuaded the king to depute Kunâla to the government of distant Taxila.

The prince obediently accepted the honourable commission, and when departing was warned by his father to verify orders received, which, if genuine, would be sealed with an impression of the king's teeth. The queen bided her time, with ever—growing