Founding Divine King (K'uhul Ajaw) of Dos Pilas
"On that day the blood pooled, and the skulls of the people of Mutul (Tikal) were piled into mountains; Nuun Ujol Chaak was brought down."— Maya hieroglyphic inscription on the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Dos Pilas commemorating B'alaj Chan K'awiil's 679 CE victory over his brother.
B'alaj Chan K'awiil (625–c. 692 CE) was the founding ruler of Dos Pilas and the central figure in the greatest dynastic civil war of the Classic Maya era—a prince of Tikal who aligned with arch-rival Calakmul to defeat and topple his own brother, the king of Tikal.
According to the inscriptions on the Hieroglyphic Stairway of Dos Pilas, B'alaj Chan K'awiil was born on October 15, 625 CE as a royal son of Tikal's 24th king, K'inich Muwaan Jol II. In 629 CE, seeking to secure the vital jade and obsidian trade routes along the Pasión River against Calakmul's northern blockade, Tikal established the fortress city of Dos Pilas and installed the four-year-old prince B'alaj Chan K'awiil as its lord.
When his brother Nuun Ujol Chaak ascended the throne at Tikal, dynastic rivalry simmered between the two branches of the royal house. In 650 CE, Calakmul's Great King Yuknoom Ch'een II marched south and seized Dos Pilas. Rather than perishing in resistance, B'alaj Chan K'awiil pledged loyalty to Yuknoom Ch'een II, accepting Calakmul's recognition and military backing as the rival claimant to the sacred Mutul kingship (K'uhul Ajaw).
Outraged that B'alaj Chan K'awiil had become a key ally of Calakmul while using Tikal's own royal emblem glyph, his brother Nuun Ujol Chaak launched repeated offensives against Dos Pilas. Driven from his capital for five years after Nuun Ujol Chaak stormed Dos Pilas in 672 CE, B'alaj Chan K'awiil returned in 677 CE with a powerful Calakmul relief army and struck back.
In 679 CE, B'alaj Chan K'awiil and his Calakmul allies crushed Tikal's army in a decisive Star War in which Nuun Ujol Chaak was killed. On the carved steps of his Hieroglyphic Stairway, B'alaj Chan K'awiil recorded that 'blood pooled and the skulls of the people of Mutul were piled into mountains.' He later dispatched his daughter, Lady Six Sky, to restore the allied dynasty at Naranjo in 682 CE, remaining Calakmul's staunchest southern pillar until his death around 692 CE.