Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Khalkatapatna

Strongly Supported Archaeology

Khalkatapatna was a busy river port near Konark about 800 years ago. Diggers found Chinese plates, Chinese coins and a hard brick floor for loading boats.

Khalkatapatna was a busy river port near Konark, on the coast of Odisha. It stood on the bank of the Kushabhadra river, close to the sea. Diggers worked here in the 1980s. They found a hard brick floor, built for loading boats. [Patra, 2014, p.119; Patra, n.d., p.112]

Diggers also found piles of Chinese pots. Some were blue-patterned. Some were a shiny green ware called celadon. They show the port traded with China around the 1300s CE. Sources do not agree on how many Chinese copper coins turned up: older reports count two round coins, each with a square hole in the middle, while a 2015 study counts three, two broken and one whole. [Patnaik, 2014a, p.105; Patra, n.d., p.112; Tripati, 2015, pp.373-374]

More than a hundred small objects came out of the ground nearby. These included beads, bangles and coins made by local Odisha kings. Together, the finds show this was a real harbour, not just a fishing village. [Patra, n.d., p.112; Patnaik, 2014a, p.105]

Historians agree Khalkatapatna flourished under the Eastern Ganga kings, only a few miles from Konark. [Dayalan, 2019, p.22; Patnaik, 2014a, p.105]

For scholars

Sources do not agree on the dig’s year. Two say 1984-85. One says 1987. No official dig report has been checked to settle this. [Patra, 2014, p.119; Patnaik, 2014a, p.105]

Facts

Coordinates
19.85°, 86.04°
[Patra, 2014]
  1. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014
Modern name
Khalkatapatna, Puri district, Odisha
Also known as
Khalkattapatna
Region
kalinga

Routes through Khalkatapatna

  • Manikapatna to Khalkatapatna

    Manikapatna and Khalkatapatna were both busy ports on the Odisha coast about 800 years ago. Chinese plates and coins have turned up at both places.

    [Patra, 2014, pp. 119-120]; [Patnaik, 2014a, p. 105]
    1. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , pp. 119-120 (Both sites are described with Chinese ceramics: Khalkatapatna's excavation (pp. 119-120) yielded Chinese celadon and porcelain with blue floral design, c. 12th-14th century CE; Manikapatna (p. 120) yielded rouletted ware, amphora and, in its later phase, Chinese wares.)
    2. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 105 (Khalkatapatna excavation finds include 'Chinese Celadonware, Chinese porcelain'; Manikapatna's finds list (pp. 104-105) likewise includes Chinese celadon, porcelain and a Chinese coin.)

Goods documented here

  • 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

Sources disagree on the excavation season: Patra 2014 and Dayalan 2019 say ASI Excavation Branch IV in 1984-85 (citing IAR 1985-86, p. 56), while Patnaik 2014 p. 105 says 1987. Neither IAR nor B. K. Sinha's site report was read directly, so the tier stops short of Confirmed. Patnaik dates the floruit to the 11th century, the other three to the 12th-14th; both brackets are listed as periods. Tripati et al. 2015 record three Chinese coins (two fragmentary, one intact), where the sources above count two.

  1. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 119 ('The excavation at Khalkattapatna (Lat. 19 deg 51' 13" N and Long. 86 deg 02' 40" E) in the Puri district by the Excavation Branch IV of the ASI (1984-1985)'. 11 km east of Konarak on the left bank of the Kushabhadra. Material assigned to c. 12th-14th century CE; a single cultural deposit.)
  2. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , p. 112 (Brick-jelly floor read as a loading platform; Chinese celadon and porcelain with blue floral design, egg-white glazed and chocolate glazed ware; two circular Chinese copper coins with a square central hole, c. 14th century CE; 143 antiquities including beads, bangles and coins of native rulers.)
  3. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 105 ('the excavation at Khalkatapatna near Konark focuses on the trade activities during Ganga period ... flourished during 11th century A.D. The evidence found from excavation (1987, ASI) are a brick jetty floor, Chinese Celadonware, Chinese porcelain ...')
  4. 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. 22, section 'Khalkattapatna' (Gives 19 deg 51' N; 86 deg 02' E and the same 12th-14th century CE range, citing Indian Archaeology 1985-86 - A Review, p. 56 and B. K. Sinha (1992). Journal pagination not verified.)
  5. Sila Tripati, R. Mani Murali, Jaya Kumar Seelam, Atula Kumar Pradhan, Rudra Prasad Behera, Richa Choudhury. *Khalkattapatna port: the lost archaeological heritage of Odisha, east coast of India*. in Current Science 109. 2015 , pp. 373-374 (Confirms the brick jelly floor read as a loading platform, and Chinese celadon/porcelain. Gives three Chinese coins (two fragmentary, one intact), where older sources here count two. Parallels the stamped ware with finds at Kota China, Johore Lama and Bagan, and at Kottapatnam/Motupalli.)