Drona
Drona
[香姓婆羅門] (Skt; Pali Dona; Jpn Kosho-baramon)
A Brahman who became a follower of Shakyamuni Buddha. According to the Long Agama Sutra, when the Buddha died, the rulers of several states vied for possession of the Buddha's ashes, wishing to enshrine them in their own states. This would have developed into a conflict had it not been for Drona, who maintained that battling and killing one another over the possession of the Buddha's ashes runs counter to the Buddha's teaching. He was singled out as a mediator in the strife over the Buddha's ashes and was asked to divide them into eight parts. Consequently, the Buddha's ashes were distributed equally among the rulers, who each erected a stupa in his respective domain to enshrine a portion of the ashes. Drona himself obtained the vessel used in the cremation and erected a stupa to house it.
