Kharoshthi potsherd from Manikapatna
- Early historic centuries
A broken pot from the old port of Manikapatna has two lines of writing scratched on it. The letters belong to Kharoshthi, a script used far away in north-west India.
Manikapatna is an old port by Chilika lake, in Odisha. Workers digging there found a broken piece of pottery. Two lines were scratched onto it. The letters are Kharoshthi, a script from far-off northwest India [Patra, n.d., p.112].
A scholar read the scratches as two words: “Dasatradeva” and “Khida.” He thought the pot was made about 1,900 years ago. Historians say this may be the only Kharoshthi writing ever found on the whole coast of eastern India [Patra, n.d., p.112].
This pot is a clue. Someone who knew a script from northwest India once stood at this port. But it does not prove the pot itself traveled far. Someone could have scratched the words right there [Patra, n.d., p.112].
For scholars
The reading “Dasatradeva” and “Khida” comes from one scholar’s study. It was reported inside another writer’s article. No one on this project has seen the first report that named it, so the words are recorded here as reported, not checked firsthand [Patra, n.d., p.118].
The pot’s exact language is not known. Only its script, Kharoshthi, is known. Script and language are not the same thing, so this clue should not be stretched too far [Patra, n.d., p.112].
Facts
- Location
- Manikapatna, on the northern tip of Chilika lake, Puri district, Odisha
- Language
- Not stated in the notices consulted; the two words read are 'Dasatradeva' and 'Khida'
- Script
- Kharoshthi
- Date
- 2nd century CE, as reported for B. N. Mukherjee's reading (Patra & Patra, OHRJ XLVII(2), p. 112)
- Edition
Sources: [Pradhan, 2000, p. 486]
- D. Pradhan, P. Mohanty, J. Mishra. *Manikapatna: An Ancient and Medieval Port on the Coast of Orissa*. ed. K. K. Basa, P. Mohanty. in Archaeology of Orissa, Vol. 1 1. 2000 , p. 486 (As cited in OHRJ XLVII(2), p. 118, n. 28. Page not verified: I could not obtain the chapter itself.)
Why it matters for trade
Kharoshthi belongs to the north-west of the subcontinent, not to eastern India. Patra & Patra call this sherd 'the only instance of a Kharosthi inscription in the whole of Kalinga or even in eastern and southeastern India'. If the reading holds, it puts a name written in a north-western script at a Chilika port in the 2nd century CE, alongside that site's rouletted ware and amphora fragments. It is the only inscribed object from a Kalinga port in this list.
Scholar notes
I have not seen the primary publication. The reading is reported at second hand from D. Pradhan, P. Mohanty and J. Mishra, 'Manikapatna: An Ancient and Medieval Port on the Coast of Orissa', in Basa & Mohanty (eds), Archaeology of Orissa I (2000), p. 486, cited at OHRJ XLVII.2, p. 118, n. 28; page not verified. The language of the sherd is not stated in what I read, only the script. Nothing here shows the pot itself travelled: scripts move with people, and the sherd may have been inscribed on the spot.
- Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , OHRJ XLVII(2), p. 112; reference given at p. 118, n. 28 ('The two lined Kharosthi inscription on a pot shred discovered from here has been deciphered as "Dasatradeva" and "Khida" of 2nd century A.D (by B.N Mukherjee).')