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16 His stūpa was removed or allowed to decay, and his ashes, probably, were thrown into a sacred river, as is the custom in modern Indian ritual.

If this conclusion is correct, Aryan culture should not be misjudged, as it has been by archæological writers, because so few traces of pre-Buddhist culture have been discovered. The art of Bharhut, Sānchī, and Kārlē is the direct offspring of Indo-Aryan culture, though the craftsmen were doubtless often of non-Aryan race.