Sonapur to Barua
- Early historic centuries
Sonapur and Barua were both small ports further south along the same old coast. A Greek geographer wrote about places like these long ago.
Barua is named in a very old Greek book about India, alongside other little ports along this same coast.
Sonapur and Barua were small ports further south, on the same old coast. The ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy wrote about places like Barua. He called it an important trade centre. Historians think ships probably moved between these close, neighbouring ports. [Patra, 2014, pp. 118, 121-123]
For scholars
No voyage or record between these two specific ports was found. The route is inferred, from how close they sit, about 35 km apart, and from a general model of coastal hopping. Both port identifications trace back to a 1918 district manual, which was not read directly in this session. The line shown is schematic. [Patra, 2014, pp. 118, 121-123]
Facts
- Mode
- Coastal
- From
- Sonapur
- To
- Barua
Ports on this route
-
Sonapur
Sonapur was an old port where the Bahuda river meets the sea in south Odisha. Ships loaded up on oysters here until sand banks blocked the way in.
-
Barua
Barua was a port the Greek geographer Ptolemy wrote about long ago. It stood where a small river reaches the sea, in what is now Andhra Pradesh.
Scholar notes
No voyage or record between these two specific ports was found; inferred from proximity (about 35 km) and Patra's general coastal-hop model. Both identifications ultimately rest on Maltby's 1918 Ganjam District Manual, not read directly in this session. Line schematic.
- Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , pp. 118, 121-123 (p. 118 sets out the general model of short coastal hops. Sonapur (pp. 121-122) and Barua ('Barua or Barwah ... from the accounts of Ptolemy ... one of the important trade centres', p. 123) are treated as neighbouring ports on the same ancient coast.)