Stupa 3

Stupa 3 stands about 100 metres north of the Great Stupa and dates to the 2nd century BC. Though smaller in scale, it is architecturally significant for preserving its single southern torana gateway intact and for the exceptional importance of its contents: reliquaries containing the bone relics of Sariputta and Mahamoggallana, the two principal disciples of the Buddha, were discovered here. The relics were taken to England in the 19th century and returned to India in 1952; they are now enshrined in the modern Chetiyagiri Vihara temple within the complex.