Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Palur

Strongly Supported Archaeology

Palur is an old port village near the mouth of the Rushikulya river in south Odisha. People found bits of Chinese and Mediterranean pots there, which shows traders came from far away.

Palur is a small village where the Rushikulya river meets the sea. It sits in Ganjam district, south Odisha. Long ago it stood on a busy coast. An old inscription found at Nagarjunikonda names Palur as a trading port. It was carved in the late 200s CE. [Patra, 2014, p.121]

Diggers explored a nearby spot called Kantigarh. They found broken Chinese pots there. They also found rouletted ware, a fine pottery stamped with tiny rolled lines. And they found pieces of storage jars called amphorae. These jars once held wine or oil from lands far to the west. [Dayalan, 2019, p.20]

Some scholars think Palur is the same place a Greek mapmaker named Ptolemy called Paloura. That was almost two thousand years ago. The idea is not proven. But it hints at how far Palur’s name once travelled. [Patra, 2014, p.121]

A newspaper report on a 2023-25 dig at Palur describes nine layers of settlement, almost three metres deep, running from before the Mauryan period through the Early Historic and Early Medieval periods. Diggers found northern black polished ware, knobbed ware, and 363 pottery pieces scratched with graffiti marks. The full excavation report is not out yet: this account comes from a newspaper story about a conference talk, so it is one early report, not a finished dig report. [Sahu, 2026, Times of India, 1 August 2026]

For scholars

No dig report has been read for the Kantigarh finds. They come only from short survey notes. So the pottery is not dated closely yet. It has not been linked to any one ship or voyage either. [Dayalan, 2019, p.20; Patra, n.d., p.109]

Facts

Coordinates
19.45°, 85.18°
[Dayalan, 2019]
  1. Duraiswamy Dayalan. *Ancient Seaports on the Eastern Coast of India: The Hub of the Maritime Silk Route Network*. in Acta Via Serica 4. 2019
Modern name
Palur, Ganjam district, Odisha
Also known as
Paloura (Ptolemy), Dantapura (proposed identification)
Region
kalinga

Routes through Palur

  • Palur to Bali

    Palur was where ships stopped following the coast and turned into open sea for Southeast Asia. Indian pots of exactly the same kind lie buried at Sembiran in Bali.

    [Patra, n.d., pp. 109-110]; [Ardika, 1991, pp. 221-232]; [Patra, 2014, p. 121]; [Xuanzang, 7th century CE, Beal 1884, vol. II, p. 205 n. 55]; [Nanda, 2019, pp. 41-42, 44]
    1. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 109-110 (Palur was a departure port on the India-Southeast Asia route; the spread of rouletted ware suggests a trade link from the eastern coast to Southeast Asia.)
    2. I. Wayan Ardika, Peter Bellwood. *Sembiran: the beginnings of Indian contact with Bali*. in Antiquity 65. 1991 , pp. 221-232 (Excavations at Sembiran in Tejakula District, north-east Bali, in 1987 and 1989 found Indian Rouletted Ware, a sherd of Arikamedu type 10 and a body sherd carrying a graffito identified as Kharoshthi, in deposits dated about AD 1-200.)
    3. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 121 (Ptolemy's apheterion, a point of departure 'immediately to the south of Paloura (Palur), where ships bound for Khryse (the Malaya Peninsula) ceased to follow the littoral and entered the high seas'. Gerini placed it at Gopalpur; Patra prefers Mansurkota nearby.)
    4. Xuanzang. *Record of the Western Regions (Da Tang Xiyu Ji)*. 7th century CE. public domain , Beal 1884, vol. II, p. 205 n. 55 (Beal glosses Charitra as Chinese Fa-hing, 'city of departure', and equates it with 'Ptolemy's to apheterion ton eis ten Chrysen empleonton (lib. vii. c. 1, 15)' - the point where ships left the coast for the Golden Land.)
    5. R. K. Nanda. *Kalinga Bali Yatra and the Maritime Trade of Odisha*. in Odisha Review. Bhubaneswar: Information and Public Relations Department, Government of Odisha. 2019 , pp. 41-42, 44 (p. 41: Baliyatra or 'Boita Bandana Yatra' at Cuttack marks the day Sadhaba mariners sailed for Bali, Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Ceylon on Kartika Purnima. p. 44, NOT p. 43 as cited before: Sembiran's rouletted ware is grouped with Sisupalgarh, Manikpatna and Tamluk.)

  • Jaugada to Palur

    Jaugada was a walled town up the Rushikulya river with Ashoka's orders carved on a rock. Scholars think its harbour was Palur, down at the river mouth.

    [Patra, n.d., pp. 109, 113]; [The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09), 1908, vol. XIV, pp. 72-73, 'Jaugada']; [Patra, 2014, pp. 121-122]
    1. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 109, 113 (p. 113: 'The very location of the Asokan Edicts at Jaugarh, a place far away from the actual scene of the war i.e. Dhauli is an indication of its association with the port of Palur, a well known ancient port of Kalinga.' p. 109: Palur, near the Rushikulya, was a port of international repute.)
    2. *The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09)*. 1908. public domain , vol. XIV, pp. 72-73, 'Jaugada' ('Ruined fort in Ganjam District, Madras, situated in 19 deg 31' N. and 84 deg 50' E., about 18 miles west of Ganjam town, on the north bank of the Rushikulya', carrying thirteen edicts of Ashoka on a granite mass.)
    3. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , pp. 121-122 (Palur is placed 'just above the mouth of Rushikulya'. Przyluski derived Palura from Dravidian words meaning 'tooth city' and linked the name to elephant tusks, 'probably one of the important items of export'; Kongoda bred elephants of good quality.)

  • Palur to Sonapur

    Palur and Sonapur were both old ports on the south Odisha coast, a short sail apart. Ships likely worked their way down the coast from one to the next.

    [Patra, 2014, pp. 118, 121-122]
    1. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , pp. 118, 121-122 (p. 118 sets out the general model of short coastal hops between neighbouring ports. Palur (p. 121) and Sonapur (pp. 121-122, 'where river Bahuda enters into the Bay of Bengal ... 20 km away from Berhampur') are treated in sequence as ports of ancient Odisha along the same stretch of coast.)

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.)

  • Amphora jars

    Bits of amphorae, the tall two-handled jars used all round the Roman world, turned up at Manikapatna and Palur.

    [Patra, n.d., pp. 109, 111]; [Patra, 2014, p. 120]
    1. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 109, 111 (p. 109: exploration around Palur (Kantigarh) 'unearthed fragments of the Chinese celadon ware, the Roman rouletted ware, amphora pieces etc.'. p. 111: Manikapatna yielded 'Roman rouletted pottery and fragments of amphora'.)
    2. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 120 ('The discovery of rouletted ware, fragments of amphora etc., indicate its contact with the Roman Empire in the early centuries CE' (Manikapatna).)
Scholar notes

Ptolemy's 'Paloura' = modern Palur is Gerini's proposal, not proved. S. Levi's further equation with the Dantapura of the Jatakas and Dathavamsa (Indian Antiquary LV, 1926, pp. 98-99, via Patra 2014 p. 121) rests on the philology of the word Paloura, not excavation; Levi's own paper was not read directly. 'Dantapura' stays a proposal. No excavation report was read: the Kantigarh finds are exploration summaries only; the Chinese celadon there is undated, so no medieval period is claimed. Goods: the Palur celadon is undated, so no period is claimed for it.

  1. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , p. 109 (Prints 'Palur (Lat 19 deg 27' E. and Long 85 deg 11' N.)' with the labels reversed. Exploration by A. Nath (ASI) and K. S. Behera at Palur (Kantigarh) found Chinese celadon, rouletted ware and amphora pieces; K. K. Basa's survey found a possible lighthouse pillar and a stamped boat motif nearby.)
  2. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 121 (Gerini: Ptolemy's Paloura = modern Palur, 'at Lat. 19 deg 27' N and Long. 85 deg 11' E, just above the mouth of Rushikulya'. Same page: 'On linguistic grounds, S. Levi identifies Dantapura ... and Dandagula of Pliny with Paloura of Ptolemy', citing Indian Antiquary LV (1926), pp. 98-99.)
  3. 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 pp. 20-21, section 'Palur' ('Palur (19 deg 27' N; 85 deg 11' E), situated in the Ganjam district of Odisha, was mentioned as an important port on the eastern coast of India.' Kantigarh explorations yielded Chinese celadon, rouletted ware and Mediterranean amphora. Journal pagination not verified.)
  4. Diana Sahu. *Digging at Palur reveals thriving maritime hub from pre-Mauryan era*. in The Times of India. 2026 , Times of India, 1 August 2026 ('Nine cultural layers ... nearly three metres ... from the pre-Mauryan period through the Early Historic and Early Medieval phases.' NBPW, knobbed and red polished ware; 363 graffiti sherds; beads. A conference report on the 2023-25 dig, not yet published; 'lends strong support' to Palur=Paloura.)