INS Kaundinya to sail ancient Odisha–Bali trade route on Kartik Purnima: Sanjeev Sanyal

The next historic voyage of the stitched-hull vessel INS Kaundinya will retrace an ancient maritime trade route from Odisha to Bali on Kartik Purnima, reviving India’s deep-rooted seafaring legacy, said economist and maritime history enthusiast Sanjeev Sanyal on Monday.

“The next voyage of INS Kaundinya will be from the east coast of India, most likely Odisha, to Bali—an ancient trade corridor that once connected India with Southeast Asia,” Sanyal said, underscoring how Kartik Purnima was traditionally marked by voyages of traders and mariners setting sail across the Bay of Bengal.




Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, was delivering the Nathaniel Wallich Memorial Lecture, instituted to commemorate the birth anniversary of the Indian Museum, which marked its 212th anniversary this year. His lecture, weaving archaeology, history and lived experience at sea, held the audience spellbound.

“I was deeply struck by Sanyal’s extraordinary story of recreating an ancient vessel and then truly living that tradition through a daring sea voyage. There could have been no better way to mark the birth anniversary of the Indian Museum than sharing this story with a Kolkata audience,” said Indian Museum Director Sayan Bhattacharya.

INS Kaundinya, an ancient-style sea-going vessel reconstructed using the stitching technique depicted in the Ajanta cave paintings, is currently undergoing a detailed technical examination at Muscat, Oman. “The boat is being thoroughly checked for structural integrity and wear after its long voyage. Once the examination and maintenance are completed, it will be brought back to India’s east coast for the next expedition,” Sanyal said.

Built without nails or metal fastenings, the vessel reflects a shipbuilding tradition that prevailed during the Gupta period nearly 1,600 years ago, and possibly much earlier. Sanyal, who also served as the architect of the reconstruction, described the recently completed voyage as “no less than an adventure straight out of antiquity”.

The 17-day journey, covering 836 nautical miles (1,513 km) across open seas, was undertaken with no modern equipment, barring a compass and a few basic navigational tools. “We deliberately avoided modern aids to understand how ancient mariners thought, navigated and survived at sea,” he said.

Adding to the authenticity of the expedition was the use of a Harappan stone anchor, a design dating back over four millennia. Sanyal was accompanied by a small crew of highly experienced and exceptionally brave naval mariners, trained to adapt modern seamanship to ancient constraints.

Explaining his motivation, Sanyal said the voyage was about correcting historical blind spots. “India has always been a seafaring civilisation with fleets ranging from large ocean-going vessels to smaller coastal boats. Unfortunately, colonial-era historians failed to see beyond the Chalukya period, effectively erasing our earlier maritime traditions,” he said.

“This distorted our understanding of history and ignored evidence of Harappan trade voyages linking India with Mesopotamia,” he added. By physically recreating ancient shipbuilding techniques and sailing forgotten trade routes, Sanyal said the project aimed to challenge long-held assumptions and restore India’s rightful place in global maritime history—one voyage at a time.