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The 1915 discovery of this and other railing fragments in Mathura confirmed the presence of a Buddhist monastery complex a short distance from the city center in the early centuries BCE. A richly bedecked elephant carries a ruler of one of the eight kingdoms that laid claim to a portion of the Buddha's remains following his cremation. Given the absence of a reliquary from the scene, this may represent an earlier moment in the narrative, when the kings of the region traveled hastily to Kushinagar to secure their share of the relics; the texts report that one of the claimants arrived late.