Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Chilika coast to Sri Lanka

Strongly Supported Scholars say

Ships left the Chilika coast for Sri Lanka. A Chinese monk wrote that on a still night you could see a light shining over the island from here.

A Chinese monk wrote that on a still night you could see a jewel shining over the Buddha's tooth shrine in Sri Lanka.

Ships sailed from the Chilika coast across the Bay of Bengal. Their goal was Sri Lanka. A Chinese monk named Xuanzang wrote about this coast. He said that on a clear night, sailors could see a light. It shone over a shrine on the island. [Xuanzang, 7th century CE, p.205; Patra, 2014, p.120]

A coin of a Sri Lankan king was found at Manikapatna. The king’s name was Sahassamalla. His coins also turned up in Sri Lanka. They turned up on the island of Sumatra too. Historians agree this shows a trade network. It joined the Chilika coast, Sri Lanka and Sumatra. [Patra, 2014, p.120]

The same stamped pottery has been found at Anuradhapura too. It is called rouletted ware. Pottery like it turns up in Bali and at Arikamedu as well. This places Sri Lanka’s old capital in the same wide trade world as Kalinga. [Ardika, 1991, p.225]

An old Sri Lankan story tells of a prince and a princess. They sailed from the Kalinga coast. They carried a tooth said to be the Buddha’s. It went all the way to Sri Lanka. [Patra, n.d., p.114]

For scholars

Anuradhapura is inland, not a harbour. Ships would have landed at a coast port, such as Mantai. No source read here ties Mantai to Kalinga directly. Xuanzang says a light was seen from Sri Lanka. He does not describe an actual sailing. The tooth-relic story comes from an old book called the Dathavamsa. It is a tradition, not a dig. Sahassamalla’s coin dates to about 1200 CE. That is roughly 1,100 years after the rouletted pottery. [Xuanzang, 7th century CE, p.206; Patra, n.d., p.112]

Facts

Mode
Maritime (open sea)
From
Manikapatna
To
Anuradhapura

Ports on this route

  • Manikapatna

    Manikapatna is an old port on the shore of Chilika lake. People digging there found coins and broken pots from China, Sri Lanka and lands far to the west.

    [Tripati, 2021, pp. 1211-1212]; [Patra, n.d., pp. 111-112]; [Patnaik, 2014a, pp. 104-105]; [Tripati, 2022, Introduction; Sci. Rep. 12:13559]; [Patra, 2014, p. 120]; [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 23, section 'Manikapatna']
    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 , pp. 1211-1212 (p. 1211: OIMSEAS, Bhubaneswar excavated 1989-1993; site lies on the bank of Chilika Lake in Brahmagiri taluk, Puri district. p. 1212: two periods, 2nd c. BCE to 5th-6th c. CE and 9th to 19th c. CE; Kharoshthi inscription, knobbed and rouletted ware, Puri-Kushan and Chola coins, Yuan/Ming porcelain.)
    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 (Finds list: Chinese celadon and porcelain, rouletted pottery and amphora fragments, knobbed ware, Burmese and Siamese pottery, a Ceylonese coin of Sahassamalla, Indonesian terracotta, egg-white Arabian ware, and a Kharoshthi potsherd read as 'Dasatradeva'.)
    3. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , pp. 104-105 (Excavation seasons 1989-90 and 1992-93; site c. 45 km south of Puri; mounds topped by the 13th-c. Bhabakundaleswar temple; period I 2nd c. BCE to 5th-6th c. CE, period II 9th c. to early 19th c. CE; East India Company copper coins, Mughal and Shah Alam coins, a British medal.)
    4. Sila Tripati, Jyotiranjan S. Ray, Rudra Prasad Behera, Prakash Babu, Milan Kumar Mahala, Murali Kocherla, Vijay Khedekar. *Geochemical provenance of an Indo-Arabian stone anchor from Manikapatna highlights the medieval maritime trade of India*. in Scientific Reports 12. 2022 , Introduction; Sci. Rep. 12:13559 (Confirms OIMSEAS 1989-1993 and Deccan College 2010 excavations, same two phases; a stone anchor near the mosque, 2018-19. Also: 'Chinese ceramic sherds ... of the 13th to 14th century CE ... produced in Fujian and Zhejiang Provinces of China' (pers. comm. Ran Zhang).)
    5. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 120 (Prints a coordinate for the site: 'Lat. 19 deg 43' 54" N and Long. 85 deg 33' 14" E', in the northern tip of the Chilika Lake, Brahmagiri tahsil, Puri district. Also the Sahassamalla-coin network linking Manikpatna, Polonnaruva and Kotchina (Sumatra), and Maratuan (Burmese) brown glazed ware.)
    6. 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, section 'Manikapatna' (Independently gives 19 deg 43' N; 85 deg 34' E, agreeing with Patra 2014 to the arc-minute. Records Abul Fazl (1595-96) on Manikapatna as a large port where salt tax was collected. Journal pagination not verified.)

  • Anuradhapura

    Anuradhapura was the old capital city of Sri Lanka. Ships from Kalinga's ports reached the island, and a Sri Lankan coin turned up at Manikapatna.

    [Patra, n.d., pp. 112, 114]; [Patra, 2014, p. 120]; [Ardika, 1991, pp. 225-226]
    1. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 112, 114 (p. 112: 'An archaeological excavation at Anuradhapura in Ceylon proves the introduction of Indian cultural elements including Buddhism into Sri Lanka even before the days of Asoka.' p. 114: the tradition of Dantakumara and Hemamala sailing to Ceylon with the tooth relic from Dantapura/Palur.)
    2. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 120 ('The discovery of Shahasamalla's coin from Manikpatna in Odisha, Polonaruva in Sri Lanka and Kotchina in Indonesia testify to a maritime network linking coastal Odisha, Sri Lanka and Sumatra.' Also Xuanzang on seeing the light over the Buddha's tooth relic in Sri Lanka from Che-li-ta-lo.)
    3. I. Wayan Ardika, Peter Bellwood. *Sembiran: the beginnings of Indian contact with Bali*. in Antiquity 65. 1991 , pp. 225-226 (Rouletted Ware sherds from Anuradhapura were analysed alongside those from Sembiran (Bali) and Arikamedu; Arikamedu type-10 pottery is also reported from Anuradhapura, placing the Sri Lankan capital inside the same Bay of Bengal ceramic network as Kalinga's ports.)
Scholar notes

Anuradhapura is an inland capital, used here as the Sri Lankan anchor; the landfall would have been a north-western port such as Mantai, for which no Kalinga link was found. Xuanzang places Simhala south of Charitra and says a light was seen; he records no sailing. The tooth-relic voyage is a Dathavamsa tradition. Sahassamalla's coin is c. 1200 CE, the pottery some 1,100 years older. Two refs share an author. Line schematic.

  1. Xuanzang. *Record of the Western Regions (Da Tang Xiyu Ji)*. 7th century CE. public domain , Beal 1884, vol. II, pp. 205-206 (p. 205, Charitra (Che-li-ta-lo) 'on the borders of the ocean ... Here it is merchants depart for distant countries'. p. 206: 'Going south 20,000 li or so is the country of Simhala (Seng-kia-lo). In the still night ... we see the surmounting precious stone of the tooth-stupa of Buddha.')
  2. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 120 ('The discovery of Shahasamalla's coin from Manikpatna in Odisha, Polonaruva in Sri Lanka and Kotchina in Indonesia testify to a maritime network linking coastal Odisha, Sri Lanka and Sumatra.' Manikpatna is Patra's preferred identification of Che-li-ta-lo.)
  3. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 112, 114 (p. 114: 'in ancient times prince Dantakumara and princess Hemamala had sailed to Ceylon with the Buddha's tooth relic from the port of Dantapura/Palur'. p. 112: excavation at Anuradhapura shows Indian cultural elements reaching Sri Lanka before Ashoka.)
  4. I. Wayan Ardika, Peter Bellwood. *Sembiran: the beginnings of Indian contact with Bali*. in Antiquity 65. 1991 , pp. 225-226 (Rouletted Ware from Anuradhapura was analysed alongside the Sembiran and Arikamedu material, placing the Sri Lankan capital inside the same Bay of Bengal ceramic network as Kalinga's ports.)