Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Chandbali to Calcutta by sea

Strongly Supported Scholars say

Steamers sailed from the river port of Chandbali up the coast to Calcutta. Odisha's own trade slowly drained away to that much bigger port.

Three times a week a steamer left Chandbali for Calcutta.

Chandbali was a small port on the Baitarani river. From here, a steamer sailed up the coast to Calcutta three times every week. It also ran by canal from Cuttack down to Chandbali. It carried people. It carried goods too. [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.92]

Chandbali’s ships did not stop at Calcutta. They also sailed west, near Bombay. They sailed east too, all the way to Arakan. Some ships went even further. They reached the Maldive Islands. They reached the island of Ceylon as well. Calcutta kept growing bigger under British rule. Slowly, it pulled trade away from small ports like Chandbali. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.144]

For scholars

No sailing chart was read for this route. So the line drawn on the map is just a rough guess, not a path any ship truly sailed. [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., p.92]

Facts

Mode
Coastal
From
Chandbali
To
Calcutta

Ports on this route

  • Chandbali

    Chandbali is a river port far up the Baitarani, safe from storms out at sea. A hundred years ago steamers left here for Calcutta three times a week.

    [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 10, 144-145, 197-198]; [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, p. 92]; [Hunter, 1872, vol. ii, Appendix IV, pp. 107-108]; [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 23]
    1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 10, 144-145, 197-198 (p. 197: 'Chandbali - Port in the Bhadrakh subdivision, situated on the left bank of the Baitarani river ... 20 miles from its mouth, in 20 deg 47' N. and 86 deg 45' E.' p. 144: it and Balasore are the only ports of importance, trading with Calcutta, Bombay to Arakan, the Maldives and Ceylon.)
    2. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, p. 92 ('The chief trade centres are Cuttack city, False Point port, and Chandbali, which is situated just outside the District.' 'Steamers carrying passengers and goods ply three times a week from Cuttack city to Chandbali port by canal, and from Chandbali to Calcutta by sea.')
    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, pp. 107-108 (The Dhamra estuary, the channel that serves Chandbali, 'was declared a port by Government Notification, No. 877, of the 18th May 1858 ... As a port for native shippers, it ranks next to that of Balasor among the Orissa harbours.' Hunter, writing in 1872, does not yet name Chandbali itself.)
    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 Chandabali among the Odisha seaports in active European trade contact in the late medieval period. 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

  • 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

The sea lane is a schematic drawn between the two ports; no chart or sailing direction was consulted. The two gazetteers are separate works but both are British official publications of the same decade, so they are not fully independent. Rice is listed because Stirling 1825, p. 194 records rice going from the small Odisha coast ports to Calcutta; neither gazetteer read here itemises this steamer's cargo.

  1. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, p. 92 ('Steamers carrying passengers and goods ply three times a week from Cuttack city to Chandbali port by canal, and from Chandbali to Calcutta by sea.' The chief imports of Cuttack district come from Calcutta.)
  2. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 144-145 ('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.')