Editing Bodhidharma (section)

=== Origins and place of birth ===
Dumoulin comments on the three principal sources. The Persian heritage is doubtful, according to Dumoulin: "In the ''Description of the Lo-yang temple'', Bodhidharma is called a Persian. Given the ambiguity of geographical references in writings of this period, such a statement should not be taken too seriously."{{sfn|Dumoulin|Heisig|Knitter|2005|p=89-90}} Dumoulin considers Tanlin's account of Bodhidharma being "the third son of a great Brahman king" to be a later addition, and finds the exact meaning of "South Indian Brahman stock" unclear: "And when Daoxuan speaks of origins from South Indian Brahman stock, it is not clear whether he is referring to roots in nobility or to India in general as the land of the Brahmans."{{sfn|Dumoulin|Heisig|Knitter|2005|p=90}}

These Chinese sources lend themselves to make inferences about Bodhidharma's origins. "The third son of a Brahman king" has been speculated to mean "the third son of a Pallava king".{{sfn|Kambe|2012}} Based on a specific pronunciation of the Chinese characters 香至 as Kang-zhi, meaning "fragrance extreme",{{sfn|Kambe|2012}} Tsutomu Kambe identifies 香至 to be [[Kanchipuram]], an old capital town in the state [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]]. According to Tsutomu Kambe, "Kanchi means 'a radiant jewel' or 'a luxury belt with jewels', and puram means a town or a state in the sense of earlier times. Thus, it is understood that the '香至-Kingdom' corresponds to the old capital 'Kanchipuram'."{{sfn|Kambe|2012}}

Acharya Raghu, in his work 'Bodhidharma Retold', used a combination of multiple factors to identify Bodhidharma from the state of [[Andhra Pradesh]] in South India, specifically to the geography around Mt. Sailum or modern day [[Srisailam]].{{sfn|Acharya|2017|p={{page needed|date=March 2023}}}}

The [[Pakistan]]i scholar [[Ahmad Hasan Dani]] speculated that according to popular accounts in Pakistan's northwest, Bodhidharma may be from the region around the [[Peshawar]] valley, or possibly around modern Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan.<ref>See Dani, AH, 'Some Early Buddhist Texts from Taxila and Peshawar Valley', Paper, Lahore SAS, 1983; and 'Short History of Pakistan' Vol 1, original 1967, rev ed 1992, and 'History of the Northern Areas of Pakistan' ed Lahore: Sang e Meel, 2001</ref>