File:Buddhist Stupa at Kesariya (wide angle view) at Champaran (east) district of Bihar, India 08.jpg

English: Buddhist Stupa at Kesariya (wide angle view) at Champaran (east) district of Bihar, India.

The structure is a six-terraced circular Buddhist stupa of bricks laid in a thin layer of mud mortar and capped by a large cylindrical drum of solid brick work.

It is believed that this stupa at Kesariya was built at the spot where buddha had offered alms bowl to the monks who followed him when he departed from vaishali after delivering the last sermon in which he announced his approaching nirvana. This stupa was constructed in two phases. The earlier stupa belonging to Sunga-Kushana period, which was expanded during late Gupta period in about 5-6 century CE. Earlier explored by Mackenzie in 1814 and Alexander Cunningham in 1861, its regular excavation was initiated by Archaeological Survey of India through Patna Circle in 1998 and was subsequently resumed by its excavation branch iii in 2018.

On the lower three terraces of the stupa there are a group of three cell shrines on four cardinal directions as well as their intersections. Possibly all the cells once contained sculptures of buddha but they are now preserved only in a few cells and are in a highly dilapidated condition.