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Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh · 23.4795°, 77.7398°
The oldest major stone monument complex of India: Ashoka's Great Stupa, enlarged and ringed with the four carved toranas whose Jataka reliefs founded Indian narrative art. Sanchi housed relics of the Buddha's chief disciples Sariputta and Moggallana, and its unbroken 1,300-year record of Buddhist building makes the hilltop a compressed history of the faith.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
Ashoka, as a prince, married Devi of nearby Vidisha; their children Mahinda and Sanghamitta — who carried Buddhism and the Bodhi sapling to Sri Lanka — visited this hill, joining Sanchi to the whole southern Buddhist world.
Sanchi sits on the Jhansi–Itarsi section of Central Railway, but the most convenient railheads are Vidisha, about 10 km away, and Bhopal, about 49 km. Bhopal, at the same 49 km, is also the nearest airport. Road links run to Bhopal, Vidisha, Raisen, Indore, Sagar and Gwalior.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-26 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Maurya
Answers only from cited records
Opening the line…