The project is being funded by the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministries of Shipping and External Affairs will be providing their support when the completed ship sets out to travel.

Swarajya caught up with Sanjeev Sanyal to discuss the project and the other themes of Indian maritime history.

Here edited excerpts from the conversation:

Swarajya: When are you looking to set sail? Do you have a specific date or festival in mind? If yes, what is the historical significance of it?

Sanyal: The ship will hopefully be ready in early 2025 and then be subjected to six months of live testing. After that, the attempt will be to sail it on Kartik Purnima 2025 (November). That is when the winds begin to blow from the north. The idea is to sail the ship from Odisha to South East Asia.

Swarajya: What do we know about the first Indians to sail a vessel on the sea? Were they using the stitched ships as well?

Sanyal: We do not know much about ocean-going Harappan ships that sailed in Bronze Age to the Middle East. We have a better idea of ship design from the late Iron Age onwards and a good idea by Gupta period.

This ship will replicate a ship from circa 4th century AD as depicted in a painting in Ajanta. Other inputs include ancient texts, carvings and descriptions by foreign travellers. An interesting aspect of ancient Indian ship technology was that the vessels were “stitched together” rather than nailed. This technique was used for thousands of years but went into decline after the Europeans came to dominate the Indian Ocean.

The technique is alive with very few remaining shipbuilders who make small fishing boats and it may go extinct soon. Hence, this ship is a way to record the technique for posterity.

Swarajya: We know of the Indian coast’s trade with Rome. Did all of that trade ply on such stitched ships?

Sanyal: There were ships from different countries crossing the Indian Ocean. The Indian and Arab ships used the stitched technique. Romans and Greeks may well have used ships derived from their own Mediterranean galleys. Later Chinese ships would use a totally different design for their “treasure fleet”.

Swarajya: This project is an effort to revive and conserve a knowledge-tradition. Once the voyage is made, will the Indian Navy or Ministry of Culture or you, be publishing the entire process as a book for history/sailing enthusiasts?

It is being documented at each step of construction in video, photographs and text. Same will be done for the voyage. So we hope that there will be enough material for documentaries and books.

This is not an attempt to “revive” this ancient stitched technique but to document the technique before it goes completely extinct. Nonetheless, note we are reconstructing a 4th century ship that will be using certain long-dead designs aspects like a trailing oar (not rudder) and square sails (not lanteen).

The sailing characteristics are not fully known or understood. Building such a ship will help us understand maritime history. Of course, we may discover new things with modern applications.

Ujjwal Shrotryia and Arush Tandon

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