Bindusara

Bindusara Maurya (r. c. 320–273 BCE) was the second emperor of the Maurya Empire. During his reign, the empire expanded southwards. He had two well-known sons, Susima and Ashoka, who were the viceroys of Taxila and Ujjain, respectively. The Greeks called him Amitrochates or Allitrochades – the Greek transliteration for the Sanskrit word Amitraghata "Slayer of enemies". He was also called Ajatashatru "Man with no enemies" in Sanskrit (not to be confused with Ajatashatru, son of Bimbisara, who ruled Haryanka Magadha from 491–461 BCE).

Life

Bindusara was the son of the first Mauryan Emperor, Chandragupta Maurya, and his Empress-Consort, Durdhara. His birth name was Simhasena. According to a legend mentioned by the Jains, Chandragupta's advisor Chanakya used to feed the emperor small doses of poison to build his immunity against possible poisoning attempts by enemies of the throne. One day, Chandragupta not knowing about the poison, shared his food with his pregnant wife, Durdhara, who was 7 days away from delivery. The empress not immune to the poison collapsed and died within few minutes. Chanakya entered the room the very time she collapsed, and to save the child in the womb, he immediately cut open the dead empress' womb and took the baby out. By that time a drop of poison had already reached the baby and touched its head due to which child got a permanent bluish spot (a "bindu") on his forehead. Thus, the newborn was named "Bindusara".