Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Elephants

Strongly Supported Scholars say

An old Indian handbook on running a kingdom names Kalinga among the lands with the best elephants. A Chinese monk who travelled here in the 600s wrote the same thing.

A stone carving at Bhubaneswar shows an elephant standing on the deck of a ship, ready to sail away.

An old Indian handbook on ruling a kingdom named the best places for war elephants. Kalinga was on that list [Kautilya, n.d., p.49].

A Chinese monk named Xuanzang travelled here in the 600s CE. He wrote that Kalinga bred a great tawny elephant. Nearby kingdoms prized it highly [Xuanzang, 7th century CE, p.207].

A stone carving on a temple in Bhubaneswar shows a ship. An elephant stands on its deck. One historian reads this as a sign that elephants were shipped away as a trade good [Patra, n.d., p.114].

For scholars

Scholars disagree on the Arthashastra’s date. It may come from Mauryan times, or as late as 200 CE. So its “Kalinga” may not mean the same borders each time [Kautilya, n.d., p.49]. The ship-and-elephant carving is one historian’s reading of a picture. It is not a shipping record [Patra, n.d., p.114].

Facts

Category
Animal product
Direction
Exported from Kalinga

Carried on these routes

  • Jaugada to Palur

    Jaugada was a walled town up the Rushikulya river with Ashoka's orders carved on a rock. Scholars think its harbour was Palur, down at the river mouth.

    [Patra, n.d., pp. 109, 113]; [The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09), 1908, vol. XIV, pp. 72-73, 'Jaugada']; [Patra, 2014, pp. 121-122]
    1. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 109, 113 (p. 113: 'The very location of the Asokan Edicts at Jaugarh, a place far away from the actual scene of the war i.e. Dhauli is an indication of its association with the port of Palur, a well known ancient port of Kalinga.' p. 109: Palur, near the Rushikulya, was a port of international repute.)
    2. *The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09)*. 1908. public domain , vol. XIV, pp. 72-73, 'Jaugada' ('Ruined fort in Ganjam District, Madras, situated in 19 deg 31' N. and 84 deg 50' E., about 18 miles west of Ganjam town, on the north bank of the Rushikulya', carrying thirteen edicts of Ashoka on a granite mass.)
    3. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , pp. 121-122 (Palur is placed 'just above the mouth of Rushikulya'. Przyluski derived Palura from Dravidian words meaning 'tooth city' and linked the name to elephant tusks, 'probably one of the important items of export'; Kongoda bred elephants of good quality.)
Scholar notes

The Arthashastra's date is disputed (Mauryan to c. 2nd century CE), so the mauryan tag follows the traditional attribution only. Xuanzang's neighbouring country Kongoda is Cunningham's identification with Ganjam. The ship-and-elephant frieze is read as evidence of export by Patra and Patra: that is an interpretation of a sculpture, not a shipping record. Stirling in 1825 doubted the elephant was indigenous to the province at all (Asiatic Researches XV, p. 182).

  1. Kautilya. *Arthashastra*. n.d. public domain , Book II, ch. 2 ('Elephants bred in countries, such as Kalinga, Anga, Karusa, and the East are the best.' Read in R. Shamasastry's translation, Mysore Printing and Publishing House, p. 49 (archive.org in.ernet.dli.2015.102722). Kangle's numbering not verified.)
  2. Xuanzang. *Record of the Western Regions (Da Tang Xiyu Ji)*. 7th century CE. public domain , vol. II, p. 207 (Beal 1884: Kalinga 'produces the great tawny wild elephant, which are much prized by neighbouring provinces'; neighbouring Kongoda has 'the great greenish-blue elephant'.)
  3. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , p. 114 (Brahmeswar temple ship frieze, c. 9th century CE: 'elephant was an item of export among many other items'.)
  4. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , p. 182 (On wild elephants poisoned near Mayurbhanj: 'it seems highly probable that the Elephant is not indigenous to the province, and it is said that the breed had its origin in the escape of some of the tame animals from their keepers in former ages.')