Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Udayagiri-Khandagiri to Pithunda

Probable Archaeology

King Kharavela's own carved message says he destroyed a market town called Pithunda. His army must have marched there from his capital, near the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves.

Kharavela's own rock-cut message boasts that he 'ploughed down' the market town of Pithunda with a plough pulled by donkeys.

King Kharavela carved his own record of his rule into a rock cave. It says he destroyed a market town called Pithunda. He used a “plough of asses” to do it, in his eleventh year as king. His army marched out from near his capital, by the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves. [Jayaswal, 1930, Jayaswal & Banerji, Epigraphia Indica XX (1929-30), line 11, translation p. 88]

Historians think Kharavela’s army moved down the coast to reach Pithunda. Scholars point to Ashoka’s edicts at Jaugada, far south of the actual site of his war at Dhauli, as a sign of this same southern route. [Patra, n.d., p. 113]

Pithunda was probably near the Chicacole region of modern Andhra Pradesh, south of Palur on the same coast. [Patra, 2014, p. 123]

For scholars

Kharavela’s inscription records that Pithunda was destroyed. It does not describe the route his army took to get there. No one has excavated or located Pithunda on the ground. The endpoint used here is a rough regional marker, not a dig site. Two of the three sources share the same author. This line is a schematic coastal corridor. It is not a proven march route. [Jayaswal, 1930, Jayaswal & Banerji, Epigraphia Indica XX (1929-30), line 11, translation p. 88; Patra, n.d., p. 113; Patra, 2014, p. 123]

Facts

Mode
Overland
From
Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves
To
Pithunda

Ports on this route

  • Pithunda

    Pithunda was a busy market town by the sea that King Kharavela says he destroyed. Nobody has dug it up, so we do not know exactly where it stood.

    [Jayaswal, 1930, Jayaswal & Banerji, Epigraphia Indica XX (1929-30), No. 7, pp. 71-89: translation of line 11 on p. 88, editors' note 34 on p. 85]; [Patra, 2014, p. 123]; [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 21, section 'Pithunda'; and p. 20, section 'Kalingapatnam']
    1. *Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela, Udayagiri*. ed. K. P. Jayaswal, R. D. Banerji. 1930. public domain , Jayaswal & Banerji, Epigraphia Indica XX (1929-30), No. 7, pp. 71-89: translation of line 11 on p. 88, editors' note 34 on p. 85 (p. 88, line 11: 'And the market-town (?) Pithumda founded by the Ava King he ploughs down with a plough of asses.' Note 34, p. 85: 'According to Ptolemy, a city in the upper part of the Coromandal coast; This city has perhaps to be taken as the capital of the Ava or Avarni.')
    2. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 123 (Pithunda in the Hathigumpha inscription (Kharavela's 11th regnal year), Ptolemy's Pityndra midway between the Godavari and Mahanadi mouths, and Pihumda of the Jain Uttaradhyayana Sutra, all equated by Sylvain Levi. 'could be located somewhere near Chicacole region of modern Andhra Pradesh'.)
    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 p. 21, section 'Pithunda'; and p. 20, section 'Kalingapatnam' (Repeats Levi's equation and places Pithunda 'somewhere near the Chicacole region (Srikakulam region)'; on p. 20 suggests instead that it 'seems to have been located somewhat close to Kalingapatnam at the mouth of the river Vamsadhara'. Journal pagination not verified.)
Scholar notes

The inscription records the destruction of Pithunda, not the route the army took to reach it. Pithunda has never been excavated or located on the ground; the endpoint here is the same regional marker used in the pithunda port entry (centre of the Chicacole/Srikakulam region, read off a modern map), not a site position. Two of the three refs share an author (Benudhar Patra). The line is a schematic coastal corridor, not an attested march route.

  1. *Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela, Udayagiri*. ed. K. P. Jayaswal, R. D. Banerji. 1930. public domain , Jayaswal & Banerji, Epigraphia Indica XX (1929-30), line 11, translation p. 88 ('And the market-town (?) Pithumda founded by the Ava King he ploughs down with a plough of asses' - Kharavela's own record of destroying Pithunda in his eleventh regnal year.)
  2. Sushanta Kumar Patra, Benudhar Patra. *Archaeology and the Maritime History of Ancient Orissa*. in Orissa Historical Research Journal XLVII. n.d. , p. 113 ('The very location of the Asokan Edicts at Jaugarh, a place far away from the actual scene of the war i.e. Dhauli is an indication of its association with the port of Palur' - the authors read Kharavela's campaign as directed down this same southern coastal corridor towards Pithunda.)
  3. Benudhar Patra. *Ports in Ancient Odisha: Historical Perspective*. in Odisha Review. 2014 , p. 123 (Pithunda 'could be located somewhere near Chicacole region of modern Andhra Pradesh', south of Palur along the same coast.)