Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Cuttack

Strongly Supported Scholars say

Cuttack stands on a tongue of land where the Mahanadi river splits in two. Boats carried its fine cloth and silver work down the river and out to sea.

Cuttack stands where the Mahanadi river splits into two arms. It sits in the middle of Odisha. Its name, Kataka, means “the fort.” Boats used the river and a canal to reach the coast ports of Chandbali and False Point. [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.98; Hunter, 1872, p.40]

In the 1600s, English traders bought fine cotton cloth from Cuttack’s weavers. This cloth was called muslin. They paid very low prices for it. Then they shipped it down the river to their posts on the coast. [Hunter, 1872, p.40]

Diggers at Cuttack’s old Barabati fort found a few pieces of Chinese pottery. The fort sits beside the Mahanadi river. This small find hints that goods from far away reached this inland town too. [Patra, n.d., p.111; Hunter, 1872, p.40]

Historians agree Cuttack was a river port, not a sea port. Big ships never reached this far inland. But boats and canals carried goods between Cuttack and the coast for hundreds of years. [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.98; Hunter, 1872, p.40]

For scholars

An old story says a king built Cuttack’s fort in the 900s CE. But no proof backs this up. The Chinese pottery from Barabati fort is known only second-hand. No one has checked the first dig report yet. [Patra, n.d., p.111; Hunter, 1872, p.40; Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.98]

Facts

Coordinates
20.48°, 85.87°
[Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d.]
  1. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain
Modern name
Cuttack, Cuttack district, Odisha
Also known as
Kataka, Cattack
Region
kalinga

Routes through Cuttack

  • Cuttack to Chandbali by canal

    Steamers left Cuttack and went down a canal to the port of Chandbali. Boats had carried salt and grain along the Mahanadi here for far longer than that.

    [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98]; [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 10, 197]; [Stirling, 1825, p. 194]
    1. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98 (p. 92: 'Steamers carrying passengers and goods ply three times a week from Cuttack city to Chandbali port by canal, and from Chandbali to Calcutta by sea.' p. 98: Cuttack is 'connected by canal with Chandbali and False Point'.)
    2. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 10, 197 (p. 10: 'Chandbali, 20 miles from the mouth, is the most important port in Orissa.' p. 197: Chandbali stands on the left bank of the Baitarani, 20 miles from its mouth; land was leased to the India General Steam Navigation Company in 1877.)
    3. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , p. 194 (Cited for the cargo, not for the canal: '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.')

  • Cuttack to False Point by canal

    False Point was the spot where the Mahanadi river reached the open sea. A canal linked it to Cuttack, so goods could travel between the inland city and ocean-going ships.

    [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98]; [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley & Cousins, Bihar and Orissa District Gazetteers: Cuttack, 2nd edn (1933), pp. 7-8]
    1. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98 (p. 92: 'the chief trade centres are Cuttack city, False Point port, and Chandbali'; p. 98: Cuttack City is 'connected by canal with Chandbali and False Point.')
    2. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley & Cousins, Bihar and Orissa District Gazetteers: Cuttack, 2nd edn (1933), pp. 7-8 (p. 7: 'False Point ... constitutes the only anchorage on the coast.' p. 8: a silting, exposed anchorage at the Mahanadi mouth - the sea end of the same canal system the Imperial Gazetteer names.)

  • 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.)

Goods documented here

  • Cotton cloth and muslin

    Kautilya's handbook put Kalinga on its short list of the seven best cotton-weaving lands in India.

    [Kautilya, n.d., Book II, ch. 11]; [Hunter, 1872, vol. II, pp. 40, 247]; [Stirling, 1825, p. 194]
    1. Kautilya. *Arthashastra*. n.d. public domain , Book II, ch. 11 ('Of cotton fabrics, those of Madhura, of Aparanta, of Kalinga, of Kasi, of Vanga, of Vatsa, and of Mahisha are the best.' Read in Shamasastry's translation, p. 84.)
    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, pp. 40, 247 (p. 40: the Orissa factors 'bought up at the lowest prices for ready money the fine muslins of Cattack'. p. 247: 'the Cattack and Balasor muslins formed an important item in the yearly Investments'.)
    3. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , p. 194 ('Piece goods' heads both the list of exports liable to duty and the list of goods imported from the adjoining districts of Bengal.)

  • Chinese ceramics

    Diggers at Manikapatna and Khalkatapatna found Chinese celadon, porcelain and two little Chinese copper coins.

    [Tripati, 2021, p. 1212]; [Patra, n.d., pp. 111-112]; [Patnaik, 2014a, p. 105]; [Patra, 2014, pp. 119-120]
    1. Sila Tripati. *Indo-Arabian stone anchor of Manikapatna, Odisha, east coast of India: an indicator of maritime contacts of Odisha*. in Current Science 120. 2021 , p. 1212 (Manikapatna finds include 'Chinese porcelain (1368-1644 CE)... belonging to Yuan and Ming dynasties' and a coin of the Jiaqing Emperor of the Qing dynasty.)
    2. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 111-112 ('Chinese celadone ware, white porcelain, blue, white and brown glazed porcelain sherds' at Manikapatna; celadon, porcelain and two Chinese copper coins of c. 14th century at Khalkatapatna.)
    3. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 105 (Manikapatna finds list includes Chinese celadon, porcelain and a Chinese coin.)
    4. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , pp. 119-120 (Khalkatapatna, c. 12th-14th century CE: Chinese celadon ware, porcelain with blue floral design on white, two Chinese copper coins datable to c. 14th century.)
Scholar notes

Cuttack is a river and canal port, roughly 100 km from the open sea; ocean-going ships never reached it. The Imperial Gazetteer's account of a fort built in the tenth century by 'Makar Kesari' is a dynastic tradition it reports without evidence. The Chinese sherds from Barabati are reported at second hand in OHRJ; B. K. Sinha's excavation report (UHRJ V, 1994) was not read. Goods: the Chinese sherds are from Barabati fort and are undated; the 'muslins of Cattack' (Hunter vol. ii, pp. 40, 247) may name the district rather than the city.

  1. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98 (p. 98: 'Cuttack City (Kataka, the fort) ... situated in 20 deg 29' N. and 85 deg 52' E., on the peninsula formed by the bifurcation of the Mahanadi'; 'connected by canal with Chandbali and False Point'. p. 92: chief trade centres are Cuttack city, False Point and Chandbali; weekly steamers.)
  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. 40 ('the Orissa factors bought up at the lowest prices for ready money the fine muslins of Cattack' - Cuttack cloth reaching the sea through the English factories at Pippli and Balasore in the 17th century.)
  3. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , p. 111 (Excavation at Barabati fort, on the right bank of the Mahanadi in Cuttack district, yielded 'a few sherds of Chinese ceramics'. The printed coordinate ('Lat 20 deg 29' N. and Long. 85 deg E') has a defective longitude.)