The Forgotten Legend

The Forgotten legend whom i m gonna discuss is a majestic person, Most of the Indians were unaware of him .Like this there are number of legends disappeared in the book of Indian history without establishing the footprints in people minds .The Legend name is “Bodhidharma“ He was also know as Taishi Daruma in japan,a famous person in zen Buddhism..I m proud to write this post because he is from South India . Bodhidharma was born in Kanchi (present name is Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu) which was the capital of Pallava during early days .No one knows the correct year of his date of birth ,History says that he lived in 4th (440) and 5 th century.He was the third son of King Simhavarman.During his childhood days he was converted to Buddhism by Prajnatara (Who came from a Buddhist town) It was Prajnatara who told Bodhidharma to go to china.

Bodhidharma took 3 years to reach the southern part of china in 5 th Century . He arrived at Luoyang,its was a popular place for Buddhist people in those days .First he was teased,hated and lived a miserable life there .Then he moved to Shaolin temple which in He-nan place.It was a popular place for Indians monks who worked for translating the Chinese scripts .The temple was built in 496 in mount sung ,few miles from the temple is a cave where Bodhidharma did his meditation facing the rock wall for nine years.Monks who worked in the temple convinced him to accept as his disciple mainly he had two disciples .Some say that before the arrival of Bodhidharma Kung-Fu was there in china , but he started teaching Meditation,Technique used by Indians and even the art used in karate was practiced by Bodhidharma ,the famous horse stance used in martial arts was done by him in olden days.He taught huge number of techniques like controlling stamina which help the monks to improve their fighting skills ,he also brought tea to china and he was called the father of zen Buddhism.Bodhidharma died in the year 528 was poisoned by a monk and he was buried near a mountain .After 3 years some said like Bodhidharma was walking towards Himalayas where they assumed that he was going back to India again with a staff with one sandal hanging and he was walking on bare foot .That’s why these days we can find Bodhidharma’s picture in Internet with staff on his hands.Bodhidharma was a great man, multifaceted person possessed lots of skills , he never wanted anyone to worship him .He taught plenty of yoga and other arts to Chinese people but we Indians missed him ..missed his teaching everything .