Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

The Orissa Trunk Road

Strongly Supported Scholars say

A great road was cut north from Puri through Cuttack to Balasore. Crowds of pilgrims walked it to see Jagannath, and carts carried paddy and salt.

The road was built for pilgrims, and in 1827 a rich Bengali paid for rest-houses and bridges all along it.

A great road was cut north from Puri. It ran through Cuttack, all the way to Balasore. Colonial engineers built it between 1812 and 1820. People also called it the Jagannath Road. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.146; Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

Crowds of pilgrims walked this road. They went to see the great temple of Jagannath, at Puri. A historian traces its path. It ran along the shore of Chilika lake. Then it went north, through Cuttack and Jajpur, toward Bhadrak. [Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

Carts on the road carried goods too. They carried paddy, a kind of unhusked rice. They carried salt as well. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.147; Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

For scholars

The road was only finished in 1825. So nothing earlier is claimed for this line. By the early 1900s, colonial records say its main goods traffic was small. It was mostly paddy and salt, over one short stretch near Balasore. That was much less than the pilgrim crowds who walked it. [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., p.147; Patnaik, 2014a, p.107]

Facts

Mode
Overland
From
Puri
To
Balasore

Ports on this route

  • 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.')

  • Balasore

    Balasore was the first place in Bengal where English traders built a factory. Big ships waited far out at sea while small boats carried goods up the winding river.

    [The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09), 1908, vol. VI, pp. 245-246, 'Balasore Town']; [Hunter, 1872, vol. ii, pp. 39-40, 196-197]; [District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions, n.d., O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 9, 34-37, 144, 186]; [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 23]
    1. *The Imperial Gazetteer of India, new edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907-09)*. 1908. public domain , vol. VI, pp. 245-246, 'Balasore Town' ('situated in 21 deg 30' N. and 86 deg 56' E., on the right bank of the Burhabalang river'. 'Balasore was the first place occupied by the English in Bengal. It owed its importance ... to the safety of its roadstead.' Earliest mention in the English records is 1633.)
    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, pp. 39-40, 196-197 (p. 39: 'These two Orissa harbours - Pippli, founded in 1635, and Balasor, founded in 1642 - formed the basis of our future greatness in Bengal.' p. 40: silting of the Subarnarekha moved the Pippli factory to Balasore. p. 197: in 1688 Captain Heath attacks and plunders the town.)
    3. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 9, 34-37, 144, 186 (p. 144: 'At the commencement of the 19th century Balasore was the only port of which Orissa could boast, and it was frequented chiefly by vessels from Madras, which put in for cargoes of rice, and by the Laccadive and Maldive islanders.' pp. 34-37: Cartwright, the Dutch, Danes and French.)
    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. 23 (Lists Balasore among the Odisha seaports with active British, Danish, Dutch, French and Portuguese contacts in the 16th-18th centuries. Journal pagination not verified.)

Goods carried on this route

  • Salt

    Boats carried salt upriver to Sambalpur and came back loaded with cotton, wheat, oil-seeds and rice.

    [Stirling, 1825, pp. 194, 218]; [Hunter, 1872, vol. I, p. 41; vol. II, pp. 159-162; vol. II Appendix III, p. 74]; [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., vol. XXII, p. 13 (Sambalpur District)]; [Patnaik, 2014a, p. 104]
    1. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , pp. 194, 218 (p. 194: 'formerly salt was an important article of export by way of the great road leading along the Mahanadi to Sembelpur and Berar... more than three lacs of maunds being exported annually'. p. 218: the salt monopoly's revenue exceeds all the land rents.)
    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. I, p. 41; vol. II, pp. 159-162; vol. II Appendix III, p. 74 (vol. I p. 41: 'The only manufacture of Parikud is salt', solar and boiled processes. vol. II: the Tributary States and Central Provinces send rice, grain, oil-seeds and cotton to the coast 'in exchange for salt' (page not isolable: between the running heads for pp. 159 and 162).)
    3. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , vol. XXII, p. 13 (Sambalpur District) ('Salt comes principally from Ganjam, and is now brought by rail instead of river as formerly.')
    4. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 104 (Abul Fazl described Manikapatna as a sea port where taxes were collected; reported here as a salt-tax centre.)

  • Rice

    Ships from the Maldive Islands sailed all the way to Balasore just to fill up with rice and clay pots.

    [Stirling, 1825, p. 194]; [Hunter, 1872, vol. II Appendix I, p. 13; vol. II, pp. 159-162]; [Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries), n.d., vol. XXII, p. 13 (Sambalpur District)]
    1. Andrew Stirling. *An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper or Cuttack*. in Asiatic Researches 15. 1825. public domain , p. 194 ('A considerable exportation of rice takes place from the several small ports along the coast to Calcutta'; Maldive vessels 'resort annually to Balasore and Dhamra, to take on board cargoes of rice and earthen pots'.)
    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 Appendix I, p. 13; vol. II, pp. 159-162 (Appendix I (Puri): at Machhagaon near the Devi river mouth 'a considerable export rice trade is done here'; Pipli and Bhubaneswar are 'seats of a considerable trade in rice and cloth'.)
    3. *Imperial Gazetteer of India (Orissa entries)*. n.d. public domain , vol. XXII, p. 13 (Sambalpur District) ('Rice is the staple export of Sambalpur, being sent principally to Calcutta, but also to Bombay and Berar.')
Scholar notes

The road was sanctioned in 1811 and finished in 1825, so nothing earlier is claimed for this line. Ricketts wrote in 1841 that 'for eight months of the year it is in such a state that no merchants attempt to move goods by it' (Balasore gazetteer p. 143), and by 1907 its chief traffic was paddy and salt between Soro and Balasore only (p. 147). Patnaik's 'Van Den Brokes map ... 1960' must be a misprint and is not used. Line schematic.

  1. *District Gazetteers (Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore), British-era editions*. n.d. public domain , O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Balasore (1907), pp. 142, 146-147, 193 (p. 146: 'The principal road is the Orissa Trunk Road, which runs for a length of 95 miles from end to end of the district', linking Midnapore and Calcutta on the north 'with Cuttack, Puri and Ganjam on the south'; built by Captain Sackville 1812-1820. p. 193: 'also called the Jagannath road'.)
  2. Sunil Kumar Patnaik. *Puri: A Study of Early Trade and Pilgrim Routes*. in Odisha Review. 2014a , p. 107 (Toynbee: 'The traffic from south to Cuttack passed along the eastern shore of the Chillika lake, between it and the sea, to Puri and thence followed exactly the line of the present great Jagannath road', and northwards from Puri through Cuttack and Jajpur to Bhadrak.)