Drona Stupa: Okay folks, enjoy the discovery of the elusive Drona stupa. According to the story, the Buddhas relics were divided by a Brahmin into eight equal portions for eight kings. The Brahmin was smart so he smeared honey on the walls of the utensil with which the sacred relics had been divided. Naturally ashes and bone stuck to the sides of the utensil. He brought the utensil back home, wiped out the relics and made a stupa over the relics and the utensil. Later on king Ashoka opened the stupa, confiscated most of the relics and the utensil, and made a second stupa near it. It seems he buried the utensil under the second stupa. Buddhists are lucky that people settled down on the stupas. By doing this they kept the name alive or the stupas would have been flattened for agriculture. Today the original stupa has the village of Desna residing over it. Drona seems to bea foreign Buddhist mis-pronunciation of Desna. The second stupa that Ashoka made for the utensil is called Asthawan. Asthi means vessel with relics. So Asthawan village definitely has the relics under it. Here is the link of the Youtube video "Buddha Exhumed: Drona Stupa." Below is the report I gave to the Archaeological Survey Of India pertaining to this site.

(15) Drona stupa/Desna and Asthawan villages: (Si-Yu-Ki page 65 and 66) In page 65 of Si-Yu-Ki, from Mahkar village Huen Tsang goes 100 li or 28 kilometers south east as the crow flies to the Drona stupa. The hundred Li south east from Bhuthakhar village lands in the agricultural fields between the twin villages of Desna and Asthawan. Now this is important as the Drona stupa is one of the first ten relic stupas which had the Buddhas relics in them. In the third para fourth line of page 65 Huen Tsang writes, “The Brahmin who meted out their several portions, smearing the inside of his pitcher with honey, after allotting them their shares, took the pichter and returned to his country. He then scraped the remaining relics from the vessel, and raised over them a stupa, and in honour to the vessel he placed it also within the stupa. And hence the names of Drona stupa was given it.” This is a case to investigate and the answer can be got only after excavations because both villages of Desna and Asthawan are settled on stupas. The name Desna itself hints that it is the Drona stupa. Drona could be a foreign Buddhist mispronounciation of Desna. We know that Buddhism went from India and came back with many mispronounced words. Drona could be one of them. But the name Asthawan also means relics. It could mean Asthi which means a vessel that contains someones relics. We must remember Ashoka opened the stupa and took out most of the relics. He also took away the Asthi or the utensil in which the relics were divided. The Asthawan stupa is far bigger and neater than the Desna/Drona stupa. We all know that Ashoka opened the seven original stupas, took out the relics leaving a chink and put the rest back in 84000 stupas. Historians till now haven’t seen any of the original stupas as I have seen and experienced in this report. So they have guessed that Ashoka most probably made a new stupa over the old one. But the Desna/Asthawan stupas tell a different fact. Similarly the Siddhaur Buddha relic stupa in Koteshwar Nath proves the same. Ashoka opened the original stupa, took out the relics leaving some, and made a second stupa nearby. So there is a strong possibility that Desna is the Drona stupa as the name sounds verbally similar. My take is that Drona is a foreign mis-pronounciation by foreign Buddhists of the Indian Desna. We must remember that Buddhism was lost to India and came back through foreign texts. All the original Indian words came back as foreign mis-pronounciations. So Desna can be the original Drona while Asthawan will most probably be the standby stupa Ashoka made. I will quote page 65, third para, third last line of Si-Yu-Ki. Huen Tsang writes, “Afterwards Asoka Raja opening the stupa, took the relics and the pichter, and in place of the old one built a great stupa.” This clearly hints that Ashoka made a second stupa and put the relics and and pichter into it. The pichter is called Asthi so the stupa with the name Asthawan most probably got its name from the pichter. This is the stupa on which Asthawan village is settled. So the pichter most probably will be in that stupa under the village.

 Heres the link to the youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uE4W7nJAR0