According to the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, after the Buddha's passing and cremation, four teeth are explicitly noted to be in existence.
According to the Mahāvaṃsa and the Dāṭhavaṃsa, during the Buddha's cremation, his left canine was retrieved by his disciple Khema, who in turn gave it to King Brahmadatte of Kaliṅga for veneration, being kept at Dantapura (modern Dantapuram).
[3] Legend states that following a conflict in Kaliṅga, the tooth was brought to the Abhayagiri Vihāra in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
[2] Scholar Charles Boxer, however, claimed that the tooth was "publicly pounded to smithereens with a mortar and pestle by the Archbishop of Goa"[4] as one of the results of the Church's attempt to eradicate native religions, believed to be around the 1550s, due to its religious importance to Buddhists.
A 2024 survey found that 32 museums and temples claimed to hold one or more of the tooth-relics, including.