2-1.Śarīra, the Beginning of New Stories
When Śākyamuni entered nirvāṇa around 400 BCE, his disciples cremated his body and divided his śarīra among eight stūpas. About 150 years later, Emperor Aśoka of the Maurya dynasty, a devoted follower of Śākyamuni’s teachings, retrieved the śarīra from the stūpas along the banks of the Ganges River and dispersed them among 84,000 stūpas across India. This ignited the spread of Śākyamuni’s śarīra and teachings to southern India, marking the beginning of new stories.