Explanation:

A stupa is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics that is used as a place of meditation. Buddhist sources claim that during the 3rd century BCE, the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great ordered these eight stupas to be opened, further distributed the relics of the Buddha into 84,000 portions, and had stupas built over them all over the expanding Buddhist world. They were located on trade routes in order to propagate Buddhism. However, there were no evidence of them being located in rural areas.