User:Joshua Jonathan/Birthplace of Bodhidharma
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Various possible birthplaces for Bodhidharma are mentioned in a variety of sources. They come down to either South India or Central Asia.
South Indian possibilities are:
- A "persistent tradition"[1] sees Bodhidharma as "the third son of a Pallavine king from Kanchipuram",[1] in Kanchipuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, South-South East India.
- Another Indian traditions describes him as being born in the historic city of Vanchi, capital of the ancient Chera Kingdom. The location of Vanchi is generally considered at Mahodayapuram (also called Thiru-vanchi-kulam) near the ancient port city of Muziris, municipality Kodungallur, state of Kerala, South West India.
- A third Indian possibility is Kochi. Kochi is part of the Ernakulam district in the state of Kerala, South-South West India.
- A fourth Indian Possibility is Nagarjunakonda.
- Sri Lanka is also mentioned as a possible birthplace.
Central Asian possibilities are:
All of these Central Asian regions were at the time Iranian language speaking, with their Buddhist forms following the Greco-Buddhist traditions then at their height under the Iranian-language speaking Buddhist Central Asian Kushan Empire, also known as Bactria. (See Silk Road transmission of Buddhism and Persian Buddhism.) Determining the specific modern 'nationality' of origin of the Bodhidharma legends within this then common-cultural, Iranian language region, is somewhat anachronistic. Except for Persia, the listed Central Asian possibilities are not explicitly mentioned in the principal sources for Bodhidharma's biography, but are more or less frequently mentioned on the web and in written documents.