Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Cuttack to False Point by canal

Strongly Supported Scholars say

False Point was the spot where the Mahanadi river reached the open sea. A canal linked it to Cuttack, so goods could travel between the inland city and ocean-going ships.

A canal carried goods from inland Cuttack all the way out to the sea at False Point.

False Point was the spot where the Mahanadi river met the open sea. Old records name Cuttack city, False Point port and Chandbali together as the region’s chief trade centres. Cuttack city was “connected by canal with Chandbali and False Point.” [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98]

A separate record calls False Point “the only anchorage on the coast.” It also describes it as exposed and silting up. This was the sea end of the same canal system named above. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O’Malley & Cousins, Bihar and Orissa District Gazetteers: Cuttack, 2nd edn (1933), pp. 7-8]

For scholars

Neither record maps the canal itself. The line drawn here is schematic, following the Mahanadi’s branching channels on a modern map. No cargo specific to this route was found in the two sources read. False Point itself was a silting, open anchorage, not a sheltered harbour. [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98; District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O’Malley & Cousins, Bihar and Orissa District Gazetteers: Cuttack, 2nd edn (1933), pp. 7-8]

Facts

Mode
River
From
Cuttack
To
False Point

Ports on this route

  • Cuttack

    Cuttack stands on a tongue of land where the Mahanadi river splits in two. Boats carried its fine cloth and silver work down the river and out to sea.

    [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98]; [Hunter, 1872, vol. ii, p. 40]; [Patra, n.d., p. 111]
    1. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98 (p. 98: 'Cuttack City (Kataka, the fort) ... situated in 20 deg 29' N. and 85 deg 52' E., on the peninsula formed by the bifurcation of the Mahanadi'; 'connected by canal with Chandbali and False Point'. p. 92: chief trade centres are Cuttack city, False Point and Chandbali; weekly steamers.)
    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, p. 40 ('the Orissa factors bought up at the lowest prices for ready money the fine muslins of Cattack' - Cuttack cloth reaching the sea through the English factories at Pippli and Balasore in the 17th century.)
    3. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , p. 111 (Excavation at Barabati fort, on the right bank of the Mahanadi in Cuttack district, yielded 'a few sherds of Chinese ceramics'. The printed coordinate ('Lat 20 deg 29' N. and Long. 85 deg E') has a defective longitude.)

  • False Point

    False Point is a spot on the Odisha coast where the Mahanadi river reaches the sea. Ships anchored here in an open roadstead because it was the only real anchorage along this stretch of coast.

    [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley & Cousins, Bihar and Orissa District Gazetteers: Cuttack, 2nd edn (1933), pp. 7-8]; [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98]
    1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley & Cousins, Bihar and Orissa District Gazetteers: Cuttack, 2nd edn (1933), pp. 7-8 (p. 7: 'False Point ... constitutes the only anchorage on the coast.' p. 8: 'a comparatively exposed anchorage, now rapidly silting up'; Mahanadi mouth 'debouches ... south of the False Point lighthouse'. Read from archive.org OCR, item PARI.bihar-and-orissa-district-gazetteers-cuttack.)
    2. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98 (Already cited under the 'cuttack' port entry: p. 92, 'the chief trade centres are Cuttack city, False Point port, and Chandbali'; p. 98, Cuttack connected by canal 'with Chandbali and False Point.' Confirms it as a named trade centre, independently of the Cuttack gazetteer.)
Scholar notes

Neither gazetteer maps the canal itself; the drawn line is schematic, following the Mahanadi distributaries on a modern map. No cargo specific to this leg was found in the two sources read, so goods is left empty rather than copied from the parallel Cuttack-Chandbali canal entry. False Point's own entry describes a silting, exposed roadstead, not a sheltered harbour.

  1. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XI, pp. 92, 98 (p. 92: 'the chief trade centres are Cuttack city, False Point port, and Chandbali'; p. 98: Cuttack City is 'connected by canal with Chandbali and False Point.')
  2. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley & Cousins, Bihar and Orissa District Gazetteers: Cuttack, 2nd edn (1933), pp. 7-8 (p. 7: 'False Point ... constitutes the only anchorage on the coast.' p. 8: a silting, exposed anchorage at the Mahanadi mouth - the sea end of the same canal system the Imperial Gazetteer names.)