Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Manikapatna to Puri

Probable Scholars say

An English sailing book of 1679 gave the course from Manikapatna to Puri. Captains steered by the tall temple of Jagannath, which they could see far out at sea.

A sailing book of 1679 told captains to steer east-north-east from Manikapatna to reach Jagannath.

An old English sailing book gave a course for this coast. It was written in 1679. It told captains to steer east-north-east from Manikapatna. That course led to the great temple of Jagannath, at Puri. One historian reports this. [Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

Ship logs from the 1600s and 1680s also named the temple. They used it as a landmark. This probably helped sailors find the coast from far out at sea. [Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

Puri itself made a poor harbour. A colonial report calls it “nothing but an unprotected roadstead.” The sea there runs deep, close to shore. But heavy waves kept ships from landing safely for much of the year. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.15; Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

For scholars

Only one historian reports this sailing direction. The old book’s spelling, “Maneclapatam,” is his own reading of the name. The original page has not been seen here. His distance of ten miles is far short of the true gap between the two places. So either the name or the distance may be off. [Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

Facts

Mode
Coastal
From
Manikapatna
To
Puri

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.)

  • Puri

    Puri is the town of the great Jagannath temple, right beside the sea. Sailors steered by its tall temple, but the open beach made a poor harbour.

    [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (1908), p. 15]; [Patnaik, 2014a, p. 107]; [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XX, p. 411, 'Puri Town']
    1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (1908), p. 15 ('The only port in the district is Puri, and this is nothing but an unprotected roadstead. It is open for import and export trade from the middle of October to the middle of March, but during the rest of the year, the surf does not allow of ships being laden or unladen.')
    2. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 107 (Kempthorn's sailing directions of 1679, folio 136-68: 'from Maneclapatam to Jauggernaut course is East-North East and distance is 10 miles.' Ship logs of Capt. Talbot (1680), Hide (1681) and Lake (1683). The author concludes Puri 'was used as a Port from Arab period (10th Century A.D)'.)
    3. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XX, p. 411, 'Puri Town' ('situated in 19 deg 48' N. and 85 deg 49' E., on the coast', population 49,334 in 1901; 'Puri is a city of lodging-houses, being destitute alike of manufactures or commerce on any considerable scale.')
Scholar notes

Only Patnaik reports Kempthorn's direction, and 'Maneclapatam' is his reading of the name; the folio itself was not seen. His ten miles is far short of the roughly 45 km between the two places, so either the name or the figure is doubtful. The Puri gazetteer is cited for the coast, not for this leg. Patnaik's further conclusion that Puri worked as a port from the tenth century is his own and is not adopted here.

  1. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 107 (Kempthorn (1679), folio 136-68: 'from Maneclapatam to Jauggernaut course is East-North East and distance is 10 miles.' The ship logs of Capt. Talbot (1680), Hide (1681) and Lake (1683) name Jaggernaut and Maneclapatam as landmarks for approaching the Odisha coast.)
  2. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (1908), pp. 15, 196 (p. 15: 'The only port in the district is Puri, and this is nothing but an unprotected roadstead.' p. 196: 'The sea along the coast is fairly deep, and vessels can go close to the shore', but heavy surf blocks landing for most of the year.)