Originally Posted by mantis108
The importance of this is that Bodhiharma might have been amongst those Brahim elites that converted or rather being deemed as "defected" to Buddhism and starting to reinterpreting some of the traditional Hindu tale/teaching resulting in new Buddhist sutras such as the Vajra Pranja Paramita. So his travelling could really have been more like an excile from his homeland.
Parasurama and Buddha are both considered descends of Vishnu the Preserver who is also mentioned in the VPP sutra if I am not mistaken. BTW, Buddha in his conversation with his disciple in the sutra made it clear that he rather be not viewed as Vishnu's descend. So in essence, there is not real conflict from the newly converted Buddhist (ie Bodhidharma) point of view to keep certain Hindu traditions and teachings.