The Sacred Relics of the Buddha were exposed for public veneration and worship in Mulagandha Kuti Vihara, Sarnath, Varanasi from 25th to 27th Nov. 2023. The exposition went on very smoothly and about 3,000 devotees and pilgrims got the rare sight of sacred Relics.
Distribution of the sacred relics
When he was eighty, Buddha died in Kushinagar Disst. Deoria of Uttar Pradesh. The Mallas of Kushinagar cremated his body with ceremonies befitting a universal king. His relics, from the funeral pyre were collected and divided into eight shares and were distributed among Ajathsatru of Magadha, the Licchavis of Vaishali, the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, Mallas of Kushinagar, Bullies of Allakappa, the Mallas of Pava, the Koliyas of Ramagrama and a Brahmana of Vethadipa for erecting stupa over the sacred relics. Two more stupas came into existence, one over the urn in which the relics had been collected and the over the embers. Thus, stupas erected over the bodily relics of Buddha (Saririka stupas) are the earliest surviving
Buddhist shrines. It is stated that Ashoka (circa 272–232 BCE) being an ardent follower of Buddhism, open -up seven of these eight stupas, and collected major portion of the relics for enshrinement within innumerable (84000 stupas) built by him in an effort to popularize Buddhism as well as the cult of the stupa.
