Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Tasar silk

Strongly Supported Scholars say

Wild silkworms in the hill jungles spin a coarse golden silk called tasar. Weavers in western Odisha made it into cloth and sent some of it towards the coast.

Tasar silk comes from wild forest silkworms, and a whole caste, the Kostas, made their living dealing in it.

Wild silkworms live in the hill jungles. They spin a coarse, golden silk called tasar. A report names a whole community, the Kostas, who made their living trading it [Hunter, 1872, p.75].

Weavers in Sambalpur turned the silk into cloth. A gazetteer says the cocoons themselves came from Chota Nagpur. Only “a little” of the finished cloth reached Ganjam near the coast. Most of it stayed and sold close to home [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.13].

For scholars

Both sources here come from the late colonial period. Nothing found carries tasar’s trade back further than that [Hunter, 1872, p.75; Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.13]. The cocoons were themselves brought in from elsewhere. Only a small amount of cloth reached the coast. So this looks like a local trade, not a proven sea export.

Facts

Category
Textile
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

Both sources are late colonial; nothing I read carries tasar back earlier. The Gazetteer says the cocoons were themselves imported from Chota Nagpur and that only 'a little' cloth went to Ganjam, so this is a regional trade, not a proven maritime export. Stirling (1825, p. 194) records silk being imported into Cuttack from Bengal, a different fibre moving the other way.

  1. 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. 75 ('The jungle yields an annual supply of resin, lac, tasar, bees-wax, dyes, fibres'; class (9.) 'Kostia, dealers in tasar'.)
  2. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , vol. XXII, p. 13 (Sambalpur District) ('Tasar silk-weaving is an important industry in Sambalpur. The cocoons are at present not cultivated locally, but are imported from Chota Nagpur... A little cloth is sent to Ganjam, but the greater part is sold locally.')