Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Diamonds

Probable Scholars say

Diamonds were washed out of the river sand at Hirakud, a name that means 'diamond island'. The people who found them were paid with grants of land.

Hirakud means 'diamond island': searchers called Jharias sifted the Mahanadi's sand and were paid in land.

Hirakud is an island in the Mahanadi river. Its name means “diamond island.” A report says that before British rule, searchers called Jharias sifted its sands for diamonds. They were paid with grants of land [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.12].

The same report calls these stones “of very poor quality.” It says the British government later leased the right to dig them. The price was just two hundred rupees. The lease was later given up [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.12].

A Greek writer named Ptolemy wrote about an inland town. He called it Sambalaka. He also named a river Adamas, the Greek word for diamond. Some later notes say Sambalaka may be Sambalpur. Historians think this may be an old link to these diamonds. But one scholar argued against it [McCrindle, 1927, pp.71, 169, 333].

For scholars

Only the colonial gazetteer records real diamond digging. Even it calls the stones poor quality. The old link rests on two guesses. One guess says Sambalaka is Sambalpur. The other says the river Adamas is the Mahanadi. A scholar named V. Ball rejected part of this idea in 1883. He named a different river instead. That river has no diamonds at all. Also, Sambalpur was not part of Orissa when this gazetteer was written [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.12; McCrindle, 1927, pp.71, 169, 333].

Facts

Category
Gem
Direction
Exported from Kalinga

Carried on these routes

  • Cuttack to Sambalpur along the Mahanadi

    Boats went far up the Mahanadi river from the coast to Sambalpur. They carried salt, spices and pots inland, and came back loaded with diamonds, iron, silk and grain.

    [Stirling, 1825, pp. 194, 218]; [Hunter, 1872, vol. ii, Appendix III, p. 74]; [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., vol. XXII, pp. 12-13 (Sambalpur District)]
    1. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , pp. 194, 218 ('Formerly salt was an important article of export by way of the great road leading along the Mahanadi to Sembelpur and Berar ... more than three lacs of maunds being exported annually.')
    2. William Wilson Hunter. *Orissa: Or the Vicissitudes of an Indian Province under Native and British Rule*. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1872. public domain , vol. ii, Appendix III, p. 74 (Mahanadi river towns 'carry salt, spices, cocoa-nuts, and brass utensils up to Sambalpur ... bringing thence, in exchange, cotton, wheat, oil-seeds, clarified butter, oil, molasses, iron, turmeric, tasar cloth, rice.')
    3. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , vol. XXII, pp. 12-13 (Sambalpur District) (Diamonds worked at Hirakud 'when Sambalpur was under native rule'; salt 'now brought by rail instead of river as formerly' - implying the river itself carried it before the railway.)

Documented at these ports

  • Sambalpur

    Sambalpur is a town far up the Mahanadi river, deep inland. Boats carried salt, spices and pots up to Sambalpur and came back loaded with diamonds, iron, silk and grain.

    [Stirling, 1825, pp. 194, 218]; [Hunter, 1872, vol. ii, Appendix III, p. 74]; [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., vol. XXII, pp. 12-13 (Sambalpur District)]
    1. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , pp. 194, 218 ('Formerly salt was an important article of export by way of the great road leading along the Mahanadi to Sembelpur and Berar ... more than three lacs of maunds being exported annually.' p. 218: the salt monopoly's revenue exceeded all the land rents.)
    2. William Wilson Hunter. *Orissa: Or the Vicissitudes of an Indian Province under Native and British Rule*. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1872. public domain , vol. ii, Appendix III, p. 74 (Mahanadi river towns 'carry salt, spices, cocoa-nuts, and brass utensils up to Sambalpur ... bringing thence, in exchange, cotton, wheat, oil-seeds, clarified butter, oil, molasses, iron, turmeric, tasar cloth, rice.')
    3. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , vol. XXII, pp. 12-13 (Sambalpur District) (Diamonds worked at Hirakud 'when Sambalpur was under native rule'; '160 native furnaces' making iron; sal forest of 238 sq. miles; tasar silk-weaving 'an important industry'; salt now 'brought by rail instead of river as formerly.')
Scholar notes

Only the Gazetteer documents actual diamond-getting, under pre-British 'native rule', and it calls the stones 'of very poor quality'. The ancient link is conjecture: McCrindle merely suggested Ptolemy's inland town Sambalaka might be Sambalpur, and Ptolemy's river Adamas has been identified with the Mahanadi, the Subarnarekha and the Brahmani by different scholars; V. Ball rejected the Subarnarekha because it carries no diamonds. Sambalpur sat in the Central Provinces, not Orissa, when the Gazetteer was written.

  1. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , vol. XXII, p. 12 (Sambalpur District) ('When Sambalpur was under native rule diamonds were obtained in the island of Hirakud (diamond island) in the Mahanadi. The Jharias or diamond-seekers were rewarded with grants of land... The diamonds, which are of very poor quality, [were] leased by the British Government for Rs. 200.')
  2. John Watson McCrindle. *Ancient India as Described by Ptolemy*. ed. Surendranath Majumdar Sastri. Calcutta: Chuckervertty, Chatterjee & Co. 1927. public domain , pp. 71, 169, 333 (p. 169: 'The Sambalaka of the Mandalai may perhaps be Sambhalpur on the Upper Mahanadi, the capital of a district which produces the finest diamonds in the world'. p. 71: 'Adamas is a Greek word meaning diamond'. p. 333: V. Ball's objection to the identifications.)