Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Chilika coast to Arikamedu

Probable Archaeology

Arikamedu near Pondicherry traded with the Roman world. Broken jars and the same patterned pottery turn up at Odisha's ports as well.

The same rouletted pottery was found at Manikapatna and at Arikamedu, a thousand kilometres down the coast.

Arikamedu sits near modern Puducherry. It was a well-known trading post. It dealt with the Roman world two thousand years ago. Historians think Odisha’s coast was linked into this same trade network. [Patra, n.d., p.111; Patnaik, 2014a, p.103]

The same stamped pottery has been found at three places. It turns up at Manikapatna, at Sisupalgarh, and at Arikamedu. It is called rouletted ware. A historian groups this pottery with finds from Kaveripattinam and Uraiyur. Together they form one shared trade network from Roman times. [Patra, n.d., p.110; Patnaik, 2014a, p.103]

No record of an actual voyage between these two coasts has been found. Historians think ships probably worked the coast in short hops. They likely joined this wider trading world piece by piece, not in one long trip. [Patnaik, 2014a, p.103]

For scholars

This tie rests only on matching pots. It is not backed by a written record of any voyage. Broken storage jars called amphorae once held wine or oil from the west. They turn up at Manikapatna and Palur, as part of this same network. But no source read for this route puts them on this exact leg. Kaveripattinam belongs to the same network too. It would suit this line just as well as Arikamedu does. [Dayalan, 2019, p.12; Patra, n.d., p.110]

Facts

Mode
Coastal
From
Manikapatna
To
Arikamedu

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.)

  • Arikamedu

    Arikamedu is an old trading village on a river near Pondicherry. The same shiny patterned pottery turns up here and at Kalinga's ports.

    [Dayalan, 2019, offprint pp. 12-16, section 'Arikamedu']; [Patra, n.d., pp. 110-111]
    1. 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 pp. 12-16, section 'Arikamedu' ('Arikamedu (11 deg 53' N; 79 deg 48' E), a well-known Indo-Roman trading station, is identified with "Pouduke" of the Periplus Maris Erythraei and Ptolemy. It is about 6 km from Pondicherry, situated on the bank of the Ariyankuppam River.' Journal pagination not verified.)
    2. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 110-111 (p. 111: 'The rouletted wares of Manikpatna have much similarity with those of Sisupalagarh and Arikamedu.' p. 110: rouletted ware from Sisupalagarh, Manikpatna and Radhanagara is grouped with finds from Kaveripatnam, Uraiyur and Arikamedu.)

Goods carried on this route

  • Amphora jars

    Bits of amphorae, the tall two-handled jars used all round the Roman world, turned up at Manikapatna and Palur.

    [Patra, n.d., pp. 109, 111]; [Patra, 2014, p. 120]
    1. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 109, 111 (p. 109: exploration around Palur (Kantigarh) 'unearthed fragments of the Chinese celadon ware, the Roman rouletted ware, amphora pieces etc.'. p. 111: Manikapatna yielded 'Roman rouletted pottery and fragments of amphora'.)
    2. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 120 ('The discovery of rouletted ware, fragments of amphora etc., indicate its contact with the Roman Empire in the early centuries CE' (Manikapatna).)
Scholar notes

The tie is a shared pottery style, not a recorded voyage between these two places, so the tier stops at Probable. Amphora fragments are listed because they occur at Manikapatna and Palur inside the same Roman-period network; no source read here puts amphorae on this leg. Kaveripattinam belongs to the same network and would suit the line equally well. The sea lane is drawn schematically.

  1. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , pp. 110-111 (p. 111: 'The rouletted wares of Manikpatna have much similarity with those of Sisupalagarh and Arikamedu.' p. 110: the same ware from Kaveripatnam, Uraiyur and Arikamedu is grouped with the Odishan finds as one Roman trade network along the east coast.)
  2. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 103 ('the land routes extended from Taxila to Kaveripattinam in the south and Tamluk in the east up to Broach in the west'; Tosali, Kalingapatnam, Tamralipti and Pithunda were 'all in the trade circuit'.)
  3. 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 pp. 12-16, section 'Arikamedu' ('Arikamedu (11 deg 53' N; 79 deg 48' E), a well-known Indo-Roman trading station, is identified with "Pouduke" of the Periplus Maris Erythraei and Ptolemy.' Journal pagination not verified.)