Bindusara was the son of the first Mauryan Emperor chandragupt maurya and his Empress consort, Durdhara. According to the Rajavalikatha a Jain work, the original name of this emperor was Simhasena. According to a legend mentioned in the jain texts, Chandragupta's guru and advisor chanakya used to feed the emperor with small doses of poison to build his immunity against possible poisoning attempts by the enemies. One day, Chandragupta not knowing about 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 in order 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".
interesting! :)
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