Political Background and Centres of Maritime Activities of Ancient Odisha
From ancient times to the mid twentieth century, the size and structure of the land of Odia speaking people frequently varied owing to repeated changes in its polity. Nevertheless, its location on the coast of the Bay of Bengal and adventurous enterprise of the Odia’s immensely contributed to the growth and development of the overseas trade and maritime activities of India in general and that of Odisha in particular. The paucity of suitable roads and the existence of a number of rivers and villages on their banks had further motivated, rather compelled the people of Odisha to take resort to the riverine routes for internal transport of goods and passengers as well. Consequently a number of port towns on the coast of the Bay of Bengal developed under the control and patronage of the people of Odisha. Various places of the land assumed greater importance owing to their direct or indirect association with the maritime activities. These places were noted for production and marketing of goods, and for their ship building and repairing industries. Their importance gradual! decreased when their indulgence in maritime activities ceased for reasons what-so-ever, which are discussed separately. Sources of the history of ancient Odisha are not as vocal as expected, towards expressing the glorious maritime aspects of such places. However, traces of evidence are found reflected in the works of literature like puranas and poems; novels and short stories of various traditional, contemporary and subsequent writers.
The present name ‘Odisha’ or Odisha has got its genesis in the Greek “Oretes” of Pliny and the Sanskrit ‘Odras’ of the Mahabharata. According to Dr. N.K.Sahu the two terms seem to have been suggested by the term ‘Or’ or ‘Orua’, meaning rice. In fact, the word ‘Orua’ prevalent in Odisha since early times seems to be the same as the Greek ‘Oruza’, meaning rice. The Oxford Dictionary states that ‘Oruza’ is a loan word in Greek derived from some Oriental source. The ‘Oretes’ or ‘Or’ (Odra) people may, therefore, mean either the ‘rice eating’ or the ‘rice growing’ people.3 The people of the geographical division between river Ganges and river Godavari identified themselves with the names like ‘Kalinga’, ‘Odra Desa’, ‘Utkala’, ‘Urshin’, ‘Udravisau’, ‘Jajnagar-Udisa’, ‘Kosala’, given by different authors of different palces and times. Evidences of the extent of ancient Odisha are found in ‘Matsya purana’ and ‘Kurma purana’. In the words of Sri Jagannath Patnaik,” the rich exuberance of the alluvial soil of the coastal region created by multiple streams and rivers with a long sea-base, washed by the swirling waters of the Bay of Bengal as well as a vast hinterland and highlands with all the beauties and bounties of nature constituted Odisha in the hoary past. It was then stretched from the Ganges to the Godavari and from Amarkantak hills to the Bay of Bengal”. The puranas describe Amarkantak hill as situated in the west of Kalinga The political geography of this glorious land under went remarkable changes in the subsequent periods of history depending upon the prevalent political conditions.
The whole of the coastal tract of Kalinga was under the suzereignty of Mahapadmananda, during 4th century B.C., when he excavated an aqueduct in the centre of that region, which was renovated and extended up to Kalinganagari by Kharavela, after three hundred years. This has been inferred by many historians like Dr. N.K.Sahu and others from the Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela. The fact that Mahapadmananda conquered Asmaka situated to the south west of Kalinga beyond the river Godavari, is an indirect evidence of the fact that at that time the territory of Kalinga was extended at least up to river Godavari.
In 261 B.C. Kalinga became a province of the Mauryan Empire under Ashoka, Toshali (modern Dhauli in Puri District) being its capital. Somapa, near modern Jaugarh in Ganjam District, subsequently developed as the secondary head quarters of the Mauryan Kalinga. One of the basic factors that motivated Ashoka to conquer Kalinga was to capture the sea coast with its rich ports for the expansion of the maritime activities of the Magadhan Empire, which was kept in narrow limits as the entire sea coast from Ganges downwards remained under the control of Kalinga.
In the first century B.C. Kalinga became a strong power under the Chedi King MahameghavahanaAira Kharavela which is known from his famous Hathigumpha Inscription. In one of his welfare works he renovated and extended the acqueduct, which the Nanda King had constructed three centuries ago. The capital of Kalinga under Kharavela was Kalinganagari; (also mentioned as ‘Nagarf in the Hathigumpha Inscription), which is identified with modern Sishupalagarh near Bhubaneswar. The construction of the aqueduct in the heart of the Kingdom by Mahapadmananda in fourth century B.C. and its renovation and extension by Kharavela in the first century B.C. can be considered as one of the primary steps of royal patronage for internal riverine trade, transport and irrigation in ancient Odisha. Ashoka’s missionary zeal and use of seaports on the coast of Kalinga for the despatch of convoys for the propagation of Buddism might have indirectly contributed to the enhancement of the status of the ports. This might have paved the way for the extension of attention and the patronage of feudal chiefs, Amatyas, Sresthis and the ministers of Ashoka, in the subsequent years. But the steps taken by Mahapadmananda and Kharavela were directly intended for the patronization of internal maritime activities and development of agriculture. The Chedi power was extended up to the Andhra country even after Kharavela.
The political history of Kalinga in the early centuries of the Christian era remains hazy and obscure. The history of this period has remained controversial. Any how, the discovery of Kushana coins from the district of Ganjam, Puri, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Cuttack has given birth to some inferences by different scholars. Refering to the opinion of E.J. Rapson, Prof.. M.N.Das states that, “Odisha at that time might have come under the supremacy of those foreign potentates. The people of ancient Kalinga, having been a race of mercantile adventures, also could have busied themselves in internal and external trade for which there could have been brisk circulation of the Kushana coins in almost every notable part of the Odisha, especially in the coastal belts.” In any case it can be reasonably inferred that the Kushana influence was exerted on the trade and maritime commerce of the people of Odisha, irrespective of its political status. Dr. K.C.Panigrahi is of the opinion that these coins can be assigned to a much later period when the Kushana empire had become a thing of the past and that these were imitations of Kushana coins minted by the Murunda kings, who were ruling a part of Bihar and Odisha, with their capital at Pataliputra, on the eve of the Gupta era.
Buddist chronicle of Ceylon, Dathavamsa describes the name of the King of Kalinga Guhasiva, a contemporary of king Mahasena of Ceylon, who protected the precious tooth-relic of Buddha from the foreign invaders, by sending it to Ceylon in the hands of his daughter Hemamala and son-in-law Dantakumara. The relic was received by king Sri Meghavarna, son and successor of king Mahasena of Ceylon. The story further vindicates the fact that Kalinga was having an efficient and well managed naval power. Otherwise king Guhasiva could not have trusted to send the most precious tooth-relic of Lord Buddha in the sea route to Ceylon in the hands of his daughter and son-in-law, for which he had to give up his life subsequently in the hands of the invaders in the battle.
At the time when Samudragupta invaded, Kalinga was divided among many kings like Mahendra of Kosala, Vyaghraraja of Mahakantara, Mantaraja of Kurala, Mahendragiri of Pistapura, Swamidatta of Kottura, Daman a of Erandapalla and Kuvera of Devarastra.
In the later half of fourth century A.D. the Matharas united a greater portion of Odisha from river Mahanadi to Godavari and the kings of this dynasty ruled for a period of hundred and fifty years.
The Sailodbhava dynasty which succeeded the Matharas in Kalinga is regarded to be the greatest patrons of Kalinga’s maritime activities. The Sailodbhavas ruled over the territory which was called Kangoda or Kanyodha, which is identified by scholars with modern Ganjam and regions surrounding Chilika Lake. During the rule of Sailodbhavas trade and maritime activities from the ports of Palura, Ganjam, Kalinganagar and Charitra flourished. The Sailodbhavas of Kangoda successfully launched a colonial adventure in ‘Suvarnadwipa’ and founded the famous Salilendra dynasty there.
The Sailodbhavas were followed by the Bhaumakaras of Utkala and Somavamsis of Koshala. In the due course of time Somavamsis overpowered the Bhaumakaras and the whole landmass of Odisha was brought under one administration. The Somavamsis became more effective in raising Odisha to its definite individuality. The decline of the Sorffavamsis witnessed the rise of another powerful dynasty called the ‘Gangavamsa’ in the eleventh century A.D. which continued to exsist in Kalinga from the first century A.D. without prominence. This dynasty ruled for more than three centuries by uniting the whole of Kalinga with in its traditional boundaries, i.e. from Ganges to Godavari and from Amarkantaka to the Bay of Bengal.
In 1436, when Kapilendra Deva ascended the throne as the first Surya King of Odisha, a new epoch in the history of Odisha began. The kings of the new dynasty came to be known as the Suryavamsis. The names like Utkala, Kalinga etc. lost their political importance and the kingdom of Suryavamsi Gajapatis came to be known as ‘Odisa Rajya\24 The last ruler of the Gajapati kingdom was Mukunda Deva who was killed in 1568 which at once paved the way for the Muslim conquest of Odisha.
The feudal chiefs like Raghubhanja and Ramachandrabhanja of Sarangagarh attempted to usurp the throne of Kataka, during the reign of Mukunda Deva. They prompted Sulaiman Khan Kararani, the Afghan ruler of Bengal and Bihar to invade Odisha. Puri, Cuttack and Balasore were conquered by Prince Bayazid in 1568; for his father Sulaiman Kararani who acknowledged the suzereignty of Akbar, agreed to pay him tribute and strike coins in his name. But in 1576, July 22, Odisha became a part of the Mughal Empire.
“Collaboration of the foreign companies on the decaying oceanic trade was another source through which the Mughal nobility and the state machinery exercised its authority over the manufacture and commerce. In 1599 the Portuguese carried on trade and piracy at Pipili and Balasore and retained their existence up to 1723. In 1633 the Mughal Subedar of Odisha granted the firman to the East India Company to carry on duty free trade and establish factories at Cuttack and Balasore. The weaving industry thrived as well as the oceanic trade of rice, salt; cowrie, textile and other commodities. Ultimately the overseas trade came under the grip of the foreign merchants in collaboration with the Indian merchants like Khemchand and Chintaman Shah ….the company’s agents at Malud, Balaramgiri, Cuttack, Hariharpur and Balasore demanded duty free trade while the Naib Nazims had levied transit duties already on the commodities”.
The above passage quoted from The Economic History of Odisha, written by Dr. B.S.Das describes briefly the condition and status of Odisha’s maritime trade during the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century.
In 1751 a treaty of Alivardi Khan and Raghuji Bhonsle, established the Maratha rule in Odisha, which continued for a period of fifty years. During this period, according to this treaty the boundry of Odisha was reduced to river ‘Sonamakia’ or ‘Sunamukhia’ near Balasore, separating the state of Odisha from Bengal as the north east boundry.
Odisha went into the hands of the East India Company in 1803 and the glorious epoch of the maritime trade of the people of Odisha came to an end, giving way to the maritime activities, controlled by the British Raj, though the people of Odisha continued to carry out the activity, the factor of self indulgence and pride of independent trade was missing.
Odisha was deprived of many provisions owing to the lack of transport facilities, during the famine; even though people from distant places came forward to extend their help. There were no canals, as in other states which enabled the people for regular transport of goods. Until I876 transport by canals in Odisha was meagre and not patronized. Railways was constructed in Odisha only in 1900 A.D. Hence the ships on the rivers during the rainy season acted as the only means of transport. In the writings of Fakir Mohan Senapati, we find the names of places like Dasapalla, Sonepur, Hariharpur, Athamallika, Mundapada, Shyampur, Khallapala, Govindapur, Langalakanta on the banks of river Mahanadi which were connected by boats. Riverine traffic was carried along the river Mahanadi which connected business centres of South Koshala with the flourishing trading stations and ports like Chelitalo on the east coast. This riverine trade of South Koshala must have contributed to the rise of several prosperous towns and business centres in the Sarabhapuriyan period and in the period that followed. Mallalapatana (modern Malhar and Aran) situated on the bank of Mahanadi flourished even in the post Sarabhapuriyan period owing to the increasing trading activities of the merchants. Sambalpur referred as ‘Samalaka’ on the ‘Mannad’ (Mahanadi) by Ptolemy, Dharmanagar (Dhamma), Suvarnapura (modern Sonepur), Jajatinagar (modern Jagati) were some of the leading townships which flourished because of the development of riverine trade activities across Mahanadi.
From the literary work of Fakir Mohan Senapati we come across the names of officials of the ships who existed during the 18th century like Majhi (Captain), Tandel (Asst. Captain) and Khalasi (Attendant) in the merchant ships of the Sadhavas (Owners). Apart from these, Badhei (the carpenter and ship maker), Kamara (blacksmith), Kalapithia, Sada-silai-Daraji (Tailors) were the other workers associated with the construction of ships.
The overseas trade and maritime activities in ancient Odisha catalyzed the creation, growth and development of various ports for overseas and inland trade. The process was based upon the need of the system and its evolution took place in commensuration with historical development of socio¬political and religious systems and organizations. Until the advent of the Europeans the people of ancient Odisha had their involvement in the overseas maritime activities with an adventurous zeal and commercial motive. Gradually the oceanic trade of the traditional form declined owing to natural and political causes.
Pradeep Kumar Panda
Economist, Bhubaneswar
