Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Manikapatna to Khalkatapatna

Probable Archaeology

Manikapatna and Khalkatapatna were both busy ports on the Odisha coast about 800 years ago. Chinese plates and coins have turned up at both places.

Diggers found the same kind of Chinese plates and coins at both Manikapatna and Khalkatapatna.

Manikapatna and Khalkatapatna were busy ports on the Odisha coast, about 800 years ago. Digs at Khalkatapatna found Chinese celadon pottery. They also found porcelain with a blue flower pattern. Digs at Manikapatna found rouletted ware and broken Roman jars. A later layer there held Chinese pottery too. [Patra, 2014, pp. 119-120]

Another dig report found similar things. Chinese celadon, porcelain, and even a Chinese coin turned up at Manikapatna. These match finds at Khalkatapatna. [Patnaik, 2014a, p. 105]

For scholars

The link between these two ports is shared Chinese pottery. It is not a written record of ships sailing between them. So the tier stops at Probable. The two sites sit about 50 km apart along the coast. The line drawn here is schematic, along the modern shore. Most sources date Khalkatapatna’s Chinese finds to the 1100s-1300s CE. That fits a later era than the full Somavamshi period tagged here. [Patra, 2014, pp. 119-120; Patnaik, 2014a, p. 105]

Facts

Mode
Coastal
From
Manikapatna
To
Khalkatapatna

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.)

  • Khalkatapatna

    Khalkatapatna was a busy river port near Konark about 800 years ago. Diggers found Chinese plates, Chinese coins and a hard brick floor for loading boats.

    [Patra, 2014, p. 119]; [Patra, n.d., p. 112]; [Patnaik, 2014a, p. 105]; [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 22, section 'Khalkattapatna']; [Tripati, 2015, pp. 373-374]
    1. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 119 ('The excavation at Khalkattapatna (Lat. 19 deg 51' 13" N and Long. 86 deg 02' 40" E) in the Puri district by the Excavation Branch IV of the ASI (1984-1985)'. 11 km east of Konarak on the left bank of the Kushabhadra. Material assigned to c. 12th-14th century CE; a single cultural deposit.)
    2. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , p. 112 (Brick-jelly floor read as a loading platform; Chinese celadon and porcelain with blue floral design, egg-white glazed and chocolate glazed ware; two circular Chinese copper coins with a square central hole, c. 14th century CE; 143 antiquities including beads, bangles and coins of native rulers.)
    3. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 105 ('the excavation at Khalkatapatna near Konark focuses on the trade activities during Ganga period ... flourished during 11th century A.D. The evidence found from excavation (1987, ASI) are a brick jetty floor, Chinese Celadonware, Chinese porcelain ...')
    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. 22, section 'Khalkattapatna' (Gives 19 deg 51' N; 86 deg 02' E and the same 12th-14th century CE range, citing Indian Archaeology 1985-86 - A Review, p. 56 and B. K. Sinha (1992). Journal pagination not verified.)
    5. Sila Tripati, R. Mani Murali, Jaya Kumar Seelam, Atula Kumar Pradhan, Rudra Prasad Behera, Richa Choudhury. *Khalkattapatna port: the lost archaeological heritage of Odisha, east coast of India*. in Current Science 109. 2015 , pp. 373-374 (Confirms the brick jelly floor read as a loading platform, and Chinese celadon/porcelain. Gives three Chinese coins (two fragmentary, one intact), where older sources here count two. Parallels the stamped ware with finds at Kota China, Johore Lama and Bagan, and at Kottapatnam/Motupalli.)

Goods carried on this route

  • Chinese ceramics

    Diggers at Manikapatna and Khalkatapatna found Chinese celadon, porcelain and two little Chinese copper coins.

    [Tripati, 2021, p. 1212]; [Patra, n.d., pp. 111-112]; [Patnaik, 2014a, p. 105]; [Patra, 2014, pp. 119-120]
    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 , p. 1212 (Manikapatna finds include 'Chinese porcelain (1368-1644 CE)... belonging to Yuan and Ming dynasties' and a coin of the Jiaqing Emperor of the Qing dynasty.)
    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 ('Chinese celadone ware, white porcelain, blue, white and brown glazed porcelain sherds' at Manikapatna; celadon, porcelain and two Chinese copper coins of c. 14th century at Khalkatapatna.)
    3. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 105 (Manikapatna finds list includes Chinese celadon, porcelain and a Chinese coin.)
    4. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , pp. 119-120 (Khalkatapatna, c. 12th-14th century CE: Chinese celadon ware, porcelain with blue floral design on white, two Chinese copper coins datable to c. 14th century.)
Scholar notes

The tie between the two ports is shared Chinese ceramic finds, not a documented voyage between them, so the tier stops at Probable (matching the precedent of the existing Manikapatna-Arikamedu entry). The two sites are about 50 km apart along the coast; the line is schematic, drawn along the modern shore. Khalkatapatna's Chinese material is dated c. 12th-14th century CE by most sources read, which fits the Eastern Ganga and early Gajapati era rather than the whole Somavamshi period; the somavamshi tag follows Khalkatapatna's own period list in sites.json.

  1. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , pp. 119-120 (Both sites are described with Chinese ceramics: Khalkatapatna's excavation (pp. 119-120) yielded Chinese celadon and porcelain with blue floral design, c. 12th-14th century CE; Manikapatna (p. 120) yielded rouletted ware, amphora and, in its later phase, Chinese wares.)
  2. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 105 (Khalkatapatna excavation finds include 'Chinese Celadonware, Chinese porcelain'; Manikapatna's finds list (pp. 104-105) likewise includes Chinese celadon, porcelain and a Chinese coin.)