Emperor Ashoka who was a great patron of Buddhism built Dharmarajika Stupa to redistribute the relics of Lord Buddha and enshrine them in a number of stupas at different places.
It is said that King Ashoka opened the seven original relic stupas except the Ramagrama stupa which is located presently in Nepal and it’s guarded by the Nagas which are divine spirit according to the legend. He collected the relics from the seven Stupas and built thousands of stupas and Dharmarajika Stupa is one of them.
As revealed by excavations, originally it was a small stupa, later it was expanded in six different stages by increasing its height, later it was provided with a circumambulatory path in the shape of a Medhi with a monolithic staircase to ascend in four directions, as per available records this huge structure was unfortunately demolished by Jagat Singh, the Diwan of King Chet Singh of Banaras during 1794 to exploit building material.
A stone box made of green marble has been found inside. This box is preserved in the Indian Museum in Calcutta, where it was thrown into the Ganges. Later during archaeological excavations two fine statues of colossal Bodhisattvas of the Kushana period in red sandstone and a seated Buddha in the Dharmachakra Pravartana Mudra of the Gupta period were also recovered from the periphery of this stupa.
The efforts made by Emperor Ashoka for the preaching and expansion of Buddha’s visionary are unprecedented and praiseworthy. The teachings of Buddhism strengthened the path of spiritual, moral, cultural and economic progress in the entire Asian continent except India.