Dharmarajika Stupa

The ruins of this brick stupa stand to the north of the Dhamek Stupa. It was built by Ashoka over the relics of the Buddha and it must have been at the heart of all religious rituals in the vihara. In the eighteenth century a minister of the Raja of Varanasi demolished the stupa and took away the bricks to build a bazaar. What remains are just fragments of the original stupa like some broken railings and pillars and the brick walls of a vihara and the cells of monks that stood next to the stupa.