While researching the history of Kanchipuram, I came across a story that says Bodhidharma, the individual credited with bringing Zen to China, was originally from Kanchipuram and was the originator of Shaolin kung fu. It makes some sense because Kanchipuram was a center for martial arts.
I like how Bodhidharma is described as being a “blue eyed barbarian”.
Here are the citations from Wikipedia:
<<Bodhidharma (A.D. 520) went to China from Kanchipuram to spread Buddhism.[3] He stayed at the Shaolin Monastery and preached Buddhist ideologies. At that time he trained the local people in the art of Varmakkalai.[3] The art underwent many changes and came to be known as Shaolin kung fu or boxing.[4] In Japan it came to be known as karate and judo. But it is interesting to note that the Chinese school agrees with the southern school of this art in that it has the same 108 varma points.[3][4]Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian. He is described as “The Blue-Eyed Barbarian” 藍眼睛的野人 (lán yǎnjīngde yěrén) in Chinese texts.[2]>>
<<Bodhidharma (c.early 5th century CE) was the Buddhist monk traditionally credited as the transmitter of Zen to China.
Very little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend, but most accounts agree that he was a south Indian Tamilian and was a Pallava prince from the kingdom of Kanchipuram, the third son of King Sugandha. Bodhidharma left the kindgom after becoming a Buddhist monk and travelled through Southeast Asia intoSouthern China and subsequently relocated northwards. The accounts differ on the date of his arrival, with one early account claiming that he arrived during the Liú Sòng Dynasty (420–479) and later accounts dating his arrival to the Liáng Dynasty (502–557). Bodhidharma was primarily active in the lands of the Northern Wèi Dynasty (386–534). Modern scholarship dates him to about the early 5th century.[1]>>