Chaukhandi Stupa

A terraced brick stupa (the memorial mound of Buddhist tradition) raised in the Gupta period on a lawn about 800 m before the main Sarnath complex, where most visitors drive straight past. Tradition holds that this is where the Buddha, arriving at Sarnath, met the five disciples who had earlier left him. On top sits something from an entirely different story: an octagonal tower added in 1588 to mark a visit by Humayun, which makes the monument a rare Buddhist-Mughal hybrid. Protected by the Archaeological Survey, and easy to fold into a Sarnath morning.

Sarnath's welcome monument: a Buddhist stupa wearing a Mughal tower on its head