Introduction
Tishyaraksha was a later queen of Ashoka, remembered in the Buddhist legendary tradition of the Ashokavadana chiefly for the tragic and villainous role she plays in that text's account of Prince Kunala's blinding.
Family
- Spouse: Ashoka (married)
A Legendary Villain's Role
According to the Ashokavadana's dramatic narrative, Tishyaraksha, motivated by jealousy or a personal grudge against Kunala, engineered his blinding through deceptive use of royal authority while Ashoka was ill — an episode that functions in Buddhist legendary literature partly as a moral tale about court intrigue and impermanent power, and partly as a dramatic setup for Kunala's eventual restoration to favor and forgiveness.
This article records the Maurya Empire (c. 4th-2nd century BCE) as historical genealogy reconstructed from Ashoka's own rock and pillar edicts, Greek and Latin accounts of contact with the Mauryas, and later Buddhist, Jain and Puranic traditions composed well after the events they describe; where these traditions genuinely disagree, that disagreement is noted rather than resolved into invented certainty.