Cuttack: A team from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Cuttack Chapter has stumbled upon the ruins of an ancient maritime lamp post at Telikuda village under Kakatpur block of Puri district. The broken lamp post was seen in a neglected condition over a dune on the bank of Kadua River near its estuarine point. The existence of the lamp post was reported to INTACH’s Cuttack Chapter by a local heritage enthusiast Satyajit Swain, said sources.
The remnants on the top of the dune were found when the place was cleared of vegetation for making a temple. An INTACH team led by Deepak Kumar Nayak which also included Anil Dhir, Biswajit Mohanty, and Bikram Nayak had gone to Telikuda to document this historical site. The lamp post was constructed using burnt bricks and stone slabs. The post had collapsed a few decades back and was repaired by locals using cement plaster and bricks. However, the old bricks and stone slabs are still present in the foundation and lower portion of the fallen tower. According to Deepak Nayak, coconvener of INTACH’s Cuttack Chapter, “The finding of this ancient light post can throw light on the maritime history of Odisha. Information gathered from the locals revealed that there was a pillar like abandoned structure on the top of the sand dune since ancient times. The post was nearly 15 ft in height and was known as the ‘Alua Khunti’. A fire would be lit on the platform atop the pillar which used to act as a navigation beacon for the boats that passed through Kadua river on the way to the sea in ancient days. Kadua, a distributary of ancient Prachi River, was in ancient times navigable and had a flourishing maritime activity.”
He also said that the accounts of both ‘Prachi Mahatmya’ and ‘Kapila Samhita’ mention River Chitrotpala which flowed on the same path as the present day Kadua. “7th Century CE Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang possibly went through these waterways to reach the port of ‘Che-li-to-la’ close to Konark,” Nayak added. According to Dhir, this find further establishes the rich maritime activity that was prevalent in the Prachi Valley in ancient days.
