Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Balasore to Calcutta

Strongly Supported Scholars say

A 19th-century report said Balasore was the only sea port Orissa could boast of at that time. Ships took rice and fine cloth north to Calcutta.

Ships loaded rice at Balasore for Calcutta, and Balasore muslin went into the Company's yearly shipment home.

A colonial report says Balasore was once “the only port” Odisha had. This was true at the start of the 1800s. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.144]

Ships from Balasore carried rice north to Calcutta. Some ships sailed on to Bombay. Some sailed all the way to Burma. A British officer wrote about this trade in the 1820s. He saw rice moving up the coast from small ports. Much of it went to Calcutta. [Stirling, 1825, p.194]

Fine cotton cloth called muslin left from here too. Long ago, English traders bought this cloth at Balasore. They paid very low prices. Then they sent the cloth home by ship. [Hunter, 1872, p.40]

For scholars

Hunter’s muslin story is old. It tells of the 1600s and 1700s. Back then, English trading posts bought cloth at Balasore. It shows us the cargo, not this later Calcutta run. Only the British period is used here. Both sources that name Calcutta as the goal come from the 1800s. [Hunter, 1872, p.40; District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.144]

Facts

Mode
Coastal
From
Balasore
To
Calcutta

Ports on this route

  • Balasore

    Balasore was the first place in Bengal where English traders built a factory. Big ships waited far out at sea while small boats carried goods up the winding river.

    [The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09), 1908, vol. VI, pp. 245-246, 'Balasore Town']; [Hunter, 1872, vol. ii, pp. 39-40, 196-197]; [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 9, 34-37, 144, 186]; [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 23]
    1. *The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09)*. 1908. public domain , vol. VI, pp. 245-246, 'Balasore Town' ('situated in 21 deg 30' N. and 86 deg 56' E., on the right bank of the Burhabalang river'. 'Balasore was the first place occupied by the English in Bengal. It owed its importance ... to the safety of its roadstead.' Earliest mention in the English records is 1633.)
    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. 39-40, 196-197 (p. 39: 'These two Orissa harbours - Pippli, founded in 1635, and Balasor, founded in 1642 - formed the basis of our future greatness in Bengal.' p. 40: silting of the Subarnarekha moved the Pippli factory to Balasore. p. 197: in 1688 Captain Heath attacks and plunders the town.)
    3. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 9, 34-37, 144, 186 (p. 144: 'At the commencement of the 19th century Balasore was the only port of which Orissa could boast, and it was frequented chiefly by vessels from Madras, which put in for cargoes of rice, and by the Laccadive and Maldive islanders.' pp. 34-37: Cartwright, the Dutch, Danes and French.)
    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. 23 (Lists Balasore among the Odisha seaports with active British, Danish, Dutch, French and Portuguese contacts in the 16th-18th centuries. Journal pagination not verified.)

  • Calcutta

    Calcutta was the capital of British India, standing on the bank of the Hooghly river. Steamers carried rice and passengers there from the Odisha coast every week.

    [The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09), 1908, vol. IX, p. 260, 'Calcutta']; [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), p. 144]; [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98]
    1. *The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09)*. 1908. public domain , vol. IX, p. 260, 'Calcutta' ('Capital of the Indian Empire and the official residence of the Viceroy and Governor-General, situated in 22 deg 34' N. and 88 deg 22' E., on the east or left bank of the Hooghly river ... The city lies about 86 miles from the sea.')
    2. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), p. 144 ('The ports which trade with Chandbali and Balasore are Calcutta, the coast ports from Bombay on the west to Arakan on the east, and foreign ports, such as the Maldive islands, Ceylon, and occasionally Mauritius.' Steamers ran three times a week between Chandbali and Calcutta.)
    3. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98 (p. 92: steamers ply from Cuttack city to Chandbali by canal and from Chandbali to Calcutta by sea; the chief imports of Cuttack district - piece-goods, kerosene, metals, yarn, spices - come from Calcutta. p. 98: Cuttack is connected by canal with Chandbali and False Point.)

Goods carried on this route

  • 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.)

  • Rice

    Ships from the Maldive Islands sailed all the way to Balasore just to fill up with rice and clay pots.

    [Stirling, 1825, p. 194]; [Hunter, 1872, vol. II Appendix I, p. 13; vol. II, pp. 159-162]; [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., vol. XXII, p. 13 (Sambalpur District)]
    1. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , p. 194 ('A considerable exportation of rice takes place from the several small ports along the coast to Calcutta'; Maldive vessels 'resort annually to Balasore and Dhamra, to take on board cargoes of rice and earthen pots'.)
    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 I, p. 13; vol. II, pp. 159-162 (Appendix I (Puri): at Machhagaon near the Devi river mouth 'a considerable export rice trade is done here'; Pipli and Bhubaneswar are 'seats of a considerable trade in rice and cloth'.)
    3. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , vol. XXII, p. 13 (Sambalpur District) ('Rice is the staple export of Sambalpur, being sent principally to Calcutta, but also to Bombay and Berar.')
Scholar notes

Schematic line; no chart consulted. Hunter's muslin passages describe the 17th- and 18th-century English factories buying cloth at Balasore, not the 19th-century Calcutta run, so they support the cargo and not the route. Only the British period is listed, because the two sources that name Calcutta as the destination are both 19th century.

  1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), p. 144 ('At the commencement of the 19th century Balasore was the only port of which Orissa could boast.' Its trading partners are 'Calcutta, the coast ports from Bombay on the west to Arakan on the east, and foreign ports'. Trade was 'declining owing to the advent of the railway'.)
  2. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , p. 194 ('A considerable exportation of rice takes place from the several small ports along the coast to Calcutta.' 'Piece goods' heads the list of exports liable to duty.)
  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, pp. 40, 247 (Cited for the cargo: 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'.)