Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Lac and beeswax

Strongly Supported Scholars say

Forest people collected sticky red lac made by tiny insects, and wax from wild bees. Both were carried out of the hills and taxed as they left.

Lac is a red resin made by tiny insects. Whole communities lived by gathering it, with beeswax, honey and dyes.

Tiny insects living on forest trees make a sticky red resin. It is called lac. Forest people gathered it, along with wax from wild bees. They carried both out of the hills [Hunter, 1872, p.75].

An 1825 tax list names beeswax and lac among the goods taxed as they left the district [Stirling, 1825, p.194].

Whole communities lived by this work. A report names one forest people, the Kols, as those “who sell resin, lac, wax” for a living [Hunter, 1872, p.75].

For scholars

Neither source says lac or wax was shipped overseas. Stirling’s list records tax paid on leaving the district. Hunter’s report describes inland trade, not sea trade [Stirling, 1825, p.194; Hunter, 1872, p.75]. This good should not be called a sea export. That would need a customs record or a trading company’s own books.

Facts

Category
Other
Direction
Exported from Kalinga
Scholar notes

Both sources are 19th century. Neither says lac or wax was shipped overseas: Stirling's list is of goods on which duty was paid on leaving the district, and Hunter's is of inland traffic. Do not upgrade to a maritime export without a customs return or a factory record.

  1. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , p. 194 (Exports liable to duty include 'bees wax' and 'lac'.)
  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, p. 102; vol. II Appendix III, p. 75 (p. 102: 'The trade of the Tributary States consists of rice, sugar-cane, oil seeds, clarified butter, cotton, coarse cereals, timber, lac, turmeric, beeswax, and other jungle products.' Appendix III p. 75 names the collecting communities, including Kols 'who sell resin, lac, wax'.)