From Deccan to the Land of Dragon: Bodhidharma’s South Indian Roots and his Impact on Chinese Buddhist Thought

Abstract

The paper looks into the South Indian origin of Bodhidharma and the transmission of his meditation-related teachings to the Chinese context between the fifth and sixth centuries CE. The intellectual and religious environment during the Pallava period, particularly Kanchipuram, forms the focus of research as it seeks to understand the understanding of the Indian Mahāyāna concepts of meditation, direct experience, Yogācāra, Madhyamaka, Buddha-nature and śūnyatā in the Chinese Buddhist context. In terms of methods, the paper employs the use of historical and comparative approaches in analyzing primary and secondary sources related to Chinese Buddhism. Such sources include Chinese Buddhist literature including the Luoyang Qielan Ji, Xu Gaoseng Zhuan, Jingde Chuandeng Lu and the Two Entrances and Four Practices as well as other modern studies on Bodhidharma, Ch’an Buddhism and Shaolin tradition. The study finds that the importance of Bodhidharma should be sought not in the literal transplanting of Indian Buddhism, but in its cultural and philosophical reinterpretation within the intellectual context of China. The stress that Bodhidharma placed on meditation, spiritual realization through practice, self-discipline, and mind-focused practices played an important role in the emergence of a specific Ch’an orientation in which Indian Mahāyāna notions were conveyed using Chinese philosophy and culture, including Daoism. In addition, according to the study, the connection of Bodhidharma with Shaolin kung fu should be seen not as a historical fact, but as a cultural tradition. Nonetheless, the story of Bodhidharma and Shaolin kung fu served as a culturally important context in which meditation, bodily and ethical training, as well as martial arts practices, could be integrated. According to the article, Bodhidharma is an important symbol of the Sino-Indian Buddhist interaction, in which Buddhist concepts were not simply transferred from one culture to another, but selectively reinterpreted.

Keywords

• Bodhidharma
• Ch’an Buddhism
• Sino-Indian Buddhist Exchange
• Shaolin Monastery
• Indian Mahāyāna

How to cite

Arvind Kumar Singh. (2026) ‘From Deccan to the Land of Dragon: Bodhidharma’s South Indian Roots and his Impact on Chinese Buddhist Thought’, Nile - Eurasian International Journal of Humanities, 1(1), pp. 62–76. https://doi.org/10.68283/neijh.v1.i1.a06