Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Puri

Probable Scholars say

Puri is the town of the great Jagannath temple, right beside the sea. Sailors steered by its tall temple, but the open beach made a poor harbour.

Puri is the town of the great Jagannath Temple, right beside the Bay of Bengal. Its tall temple towers could be seen far out at sea, so sailors probably steered toward it to find the coast. [Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

Old English ship logs from the 1600s and 1680s mention sailing to Puri. A historian who studied them thinks Puri worked as a landing place from as early as the 900s CE. [Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

But Puri’s beach makes a poor harbour. Colonial records call it an unprotected roadstead, a stretch of open shore with no shelter from the waves, that ships could use safely only for half the year. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.15; Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

So historians think ships probably anchored offshore and used small boats to reach the beach, rather than sailing right up to a dock. [Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

For scholars

Sources disagree on Puri. British gazetteers call it a place with almost no trade at all. Patnaik argues from ship logs that boats used it for centuries. Both things can be true: a beach that ships could reach, but never a real harbour. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.15; Patnaik, 2014a, p.107; Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.411]

Facts

Coordinates
19.80°, 85.82°
[Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d.]
  1. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain
Modern name
Puri, Puri district, Odisha
Also known as
Jauggernaut (English ship logs), Purushottama Kshetra
Region
kalinga

Routes through Puri

  • Manikapatna to Puri

    An English sailing book of 1679 gave the course from Manikapatna to Puri. Captains steered by the tall temple of Jagannath, which they could see far out at sea.

    [Patnaik, 2014a, p. 107]; [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (1908), pp. 15, 196]
    1. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 107 (Kempthorn (1679), folio 136-68: 'from Maneclapatam to Jauggernaut course is East-North East and distance is 10 miles.' The ship logs of Capt. Talbot (1680), Hide (1681) and Lake (1683) name Jaggernaut and Maneclapatam as landmarks for approaching the Odisha coast.)
    2. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (1908), pp. 15, 196 (p. 15: 'The only port in the district is Puri, and this is nothing but an unprotected roadstead.' p. 196: 'The sea along the coast is fairly deep, and vessels can go close to the shore', but heavy surf blocks landing for most of the year.)

  • Ganjam to Puri through Chilika

    Boats from Ganjam came north through a canal and across Chilika lake. They brought bamboo and carried away the spare rice of the southern villages.

    [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (1908), p. 196]; [Patnaik, 2014a, pp. 106, 108]
    1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (1908), p. 196 (Ganjam traders used the Ganjam canal and Chilika lake for boat traffic all year, bringing bamboo and taking away surplus rice.)
    2. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , pp. 106, 108 (p. 106: the Brahmanda Purana treats Chilika as a trade route, and Kushana coins at Gurubai on the strip between the lake and the sea 'suggests a trade route in the area'. p. 108: in 1810 pilgrims from the south came by road along the strip 'or in few cases by boats across the Chilika Lake'.)

  • The Orissa Trunk Road

    A great road was cut north from Puri through Cuttack to Balasore. Crowds of pilgrims walked it to see Jagannath, and carts carried paddy and salt.

    [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 142, 146-147, 193]; [Patnaik, 2014a, p. 107]
    1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 142, 146-147, 193 (p. 146: 'The principal road is the Orissa Trunk Road, which runs for a length of 95 miles from end to end of the district', linking Midnapore and Calcutta on the north 'with Cuttack, Puri and Ganjam on the south'; built by Captain Sackville 1812-1820. p. 193: 'also called the Jagannath road'.)
    2. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 107 (Toynbee: 'The traffic from south to Cuttack passed along the eastern shore of the Chillika lake, between it and the sea, to Puri and thence followed exactly the line of the present great Jagannath road', and northwards from Puri through Cuttack and Jajpur to Bhadrak.)

  • Balugaon to Puri across Chilika

    Balugaon was a fishing and grain town on the edge of Chilika lake. Boats and, later, trains carried its fish and grain on towards Puri and beyond.

    [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley & Mansfield, Bihar and Orissa District Gazetteers: Puri (1929), pp. 204-205, 212-213]
    1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley & Mansfield, Bihar and Orissa District Gazetteers: Puri (1929), pp. 204-205, 212-213 ('From Balugaon and Kalupara Ghat the greater part of the traffic is the export of fish and grain'; the District Fishery Officer's headquarters were 'shifted to Balugaon on the Chilka lake.')
Scholar notes

The two gazetteers and Patnaik pull in opposite directions: the Imperial Gazetteer calls Puri destitute of commerce, while Patnaik argues from European sailing directions that it worked as a port from the 10th century. What all three support is a beach roadstead used seasonally and a temple used as a sea-mark, not a sheltered harbour - hence Probable. Cunningham's identification of Puri with Xuanzang's Che-li-ta-lo is rejected by Patra 2014 p. 120 and Dayalan 2019 because Puri has no Buddhist monuments; it is not asserted here.

  1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (1908), p. 15 ('The only port in the district is Puri, and this is nothing but an unprotected roadstead. It is open for import and export trade from the middle of October to the middle of March, but during the rest of the year, the surf does not allow of ships being laden or unladen.')
  2. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 107 (Kempthorn's sailing directions of 1679, folio 136-68: 'from Maneclapatam to Jauggernaut course is East-North East and distance is 10 miles.' Ship logs of Capt. Talbot (1680), Hide (1681) and Lake (1683). The author concludes Puri 'was used as a Port from Arab period (10th Century A.D)'.)
  3. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XX, p. 411, 'Puri Town' ('situated in 19 deg 48' N. and 85 deg 49' E., on the coast', population 49,334 in 1901; 'Puri is a city of lodging-houses, being destitute alike of manufactures or commerce on any considerable scale.')