Malla ［末羅］ (, Pali;  Matsura): One of the sixteen great states in ancient India in Shakyamuni’s time. Malla is also the name of the tribe that occupied that state, in what is the present-day state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Kushinagara was the capital of the Mallas, and Pāvā was another great Malla city. Unlike the monarchies that surrounded it, Malla is said to have employed a republican form of government, where assemblies were held to decide important matters. When Shakyamuni died in a grove of sal trees in the northern part of Kushinagara, his body was received and cremated by the Mallas who were overcome with grief. Shakyamuni’s ashes were then divided into eight parts, one of which was distributed to the Mallas, who built a stupa to house them.