Traditional remembrance places Bodhidharma in the broad span of the 5th to 6th centuries of the Common Era. Within that horizon, the most frequently cited estimates cluster around a life that began sometime between about 440 and 470 CE and ended sometime between about 528 and the mid-530s CE. These overlapping ranges, though not identical, converge on a shared sense that his activity belongs firmly to that transitional period in early medieval East Asian Buddhism. Such convergence itself carries weight, even when precise dates remain elusive.

The traditional dating of Bodhidharma’s life, then, is best approached as an approximate window rather than a fixed set of calendar points. Sources commonly suggest that he was active in China during the late 5th and early 6th centuries, with his teaching career unfolding roughly between about 470 and 530 CE. Some accounts extend his lifespan slightly later, into the 540s, while others end it a bit earlier, around 528 CE. These variations are not so much contradictions as different ways of circling around the same historical and spiritual figure.

For a spiritual seeker, this indeterminacy can itself be instructive. The tradition does not preserve Bodhidharma’s dates with the precision of a chronicle, yet it remembers the era in which his presence was felt: a time of transmission, encounter, and reinterpretation of Buddhist practice. To contemplate Bodhidharma’s life as situated “around” the 5th–6th centuries is to recognize that what endures most clearly is not the exact year of his birth or death, but the enduring impression of his teaching. In that sense, the approximate dating serves as a reminder that in spiritual history, the quality of a life often outshines the exactness of its timeline.