Kunala

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 (who was Ashoka's eldest son), he was supposed to be the future 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.

Significance of name

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".

Early life

Due to the premature death of his birth mother, Rani 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, there to be brought up and carry out his princely education, to become the heir to the throne of the Mauryan Empire. Which he should not have succeeded because he was the youngest and had no right to rule just like his father.

Kunal (disambiguation)

List of famous people with name Kunal

Kunal (actor)

Kunal Singh (Hindi: कुणाल; 29 September 1977 – 7 February 2008) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil films. He is best known for his role in Kadhalar Dhinam (1999). His death in 2008 from apparent suicide garnered significant media attention.

Career

Kunal's first major role was in the 1999 box office success Kadhalar Dhinam alongside Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre, where he played a young student who falls in love over the Internet.

After the release of Kadhalar Dhinam, Kunal appeared in a series of box office failures like Pesadha Kannum Pesume (2002) and Nanbanin Kadhali (2007). His other three box office successes were Paarvai Ondre Podhume (2001), Punnagai Desam (2002) and Devathayai Kanden (2005), with the latter featuring Kunal in a supporting role alongside Dhanush and Sridevi Vijayakumar. When he was unable to find roles as an actor, he served as assistant editor for several films and turned to producing.

Death

On 7 February 2008, he was found hanging from a ceiling in his Mumbai apartment by actress Lavina Bhatia. The apparent suicide was challenged by his father Rajendra Singh who claimed the body showed signs of suspicious bruising. Bhatia was detained by police in connection with his death, but was later released after the police could not prove a motive. The police were unable to prove any other persons were present in Kunal's apartment at the time of his death and therefore ruled out Bhatia as a suspect as Kunal had a black belt in karate; furthermore, he had attempted suicide by slashing his wrists several months earlier. At the time of his death, Kunal was working on a film, Yogi, which was being produced by his newly formed production company Balagiri. The case was referred to CBI, Prof T D Dogra of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, examined the scene of crime along with CBI, he opined in favor of suicide.

Prayer

Prayer (from the Latin precari "to ask earnestly, beg, entreat") is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication.

Prayer can be a form of religious practice, may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words, song or complete silence. When language is used, prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creedal statement, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person. There are different forms of prayer such as petitionary prayer, prayers of supplication, thanksgiving, and praise. Prayer may be directed towards a deity, spirit, deceased person, or lofty idea, for the purpose of worshipping, requesting guidance, requesting assistance, confessing transgressions (sins) or to express one's thoughts and emotions. Thus, people pray for many reasons such as personal benefit, asking for divine grace, spiritual connection, or for the sake of others.

Some anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent modern humans practiced a form of prayer. Today, most major religions involve prayer in one way or another; some ritualize the act of prayer, requiring a strict sequence of actions or placing a restriction on who is permitted to pray, while others teach that prayer may be practiced spontaneously by anyone at any time.

Greeting (album)

Greeting is the first album by Japanese pop singer Nami Tamaki. The album was released in Japan by Sony Music Japan, then re-released in America by Tofu Records.

Track listing

Release history

Christian prayer

Prayer is an important activity in Christianity, and there are several different forms of Christian prayer.

Christian prayers are diverse: they can be completely spontaneous, or read entirely from a text, like the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. The most common prayer among Christians is the "Lord's Prayer", which according to the gospel accounts (e.g. Matthew 6:9-13) is how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. "The Lord's Prayer" is a model for prayers of adoration, confession and petition in Christianity.

A broad, three stage characterization of prayer begins with vocal prayer, then moves on to a more structured form in terms of meditation, then reaches the multiple layers of contemplation, or intercession.

There are two basic settings for Christian prayer: corporate (or public) and private. Corporate prayer includes prayer shared within the worship setting or other public places. These prayers can be formal written prayers or informal extemporaneous prayers. Private prayer occurs with the individual praying either silently or aloud within a private setting. Prayer exists within multiple different worship contexts and may be structured differently. These types of contexts may include: