Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Hariharpur

Probable Scholars say

Hariharpur was a trading post in the middle of the Mahanadi delta. English traders built a house there in 1633, but fever and floods soon drove them away.

Hariharpur was a small trading post in the middle of the Mahanadi river delta. It stood on a channel, at a customs post where ships could anchor offshore. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.34; Dayalan, 2019, p.23]

In 1633, English traders built a house of business here. They hoped to reach ships in the delta’s channels. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.35; Dayalan, 2019, p.23]

Life there was hard. Fever made many of them sick. Five of the six traders died in a short time. The English soon gave up the post. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.35; Dayalan, 2019, p.23]

For scholars

Hariharpur may not be one place. One record calls it Hariharpur. Two pages later the same record spells it Harishpur. No published map coordinate for the site has been found. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.35; Dayalan, 2019, p.23]

Facts

Coordinates
20.25°, 86.17°
[District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d.]
  1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain
Modern name
Hariharpur, near Jagatsinghpur, Odisha (identification unconfirmed)
Also known as
Harishpur, Hurryharpore
Region
kalinga
Scholar notes

Hariharpur and Harishpur are not the same place: Hunter 1872, vol. ii, App. IV, p. 156, lists 'Hariharpur (Jagatsinhpur)' and 'Harishpur Kila' as two separate parganas of Cuttack district, with different areas. The Balasore gazetteer's pp. 34-35 narrative uses both spellings for one factory site; this entry follows that narrative for the factory but the two names should not be assumed interchangeable elsewhere. No coordinate was found; position is read off a modern map near Jagatsinghpur.

  1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 34-35, 37 (p. 34: after the governor's licence to Ralph Cartwright, 'They built a house of business at Hariharpur, on a channel half way down the delta'. p. 35: the Swan 'anchored off the Mughal customs-station of Harishpur' on 22 July 1633; five of six factors died and the delta factory decayed.)
  2. Duraiswamy Dayalan. *Ancient Seaports on the Eastern Coast of India: The Hub of the Maritime Silk Route Network*. in Acta Via Serica 4. 2019 , offprint p. 23 (Lists Harishpur among the Odisha seaports with active British, Danish, Dutch, French and Portuguese trade contacts in the 16th-18th centuries. Journal pagination not verified.)
  3. 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 IV, p. 156 (Cuttack district fiscal-division table lists them as two separate units: '(32) Hariharpur (Jagatsinhpur), 65.37 square miles ... (33) Harishpur Kila, 62.09 square miles.' Confirms they are distinct parganas, not a spelling variant.)