Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh: The tenuous link between the present and the past

Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh: The tenuous link between the present and the past

On May 22, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy formally launched the commencement of works at Machilipatnam port. This has brought back focus on the forgotten port of Machilipatnam that rose to prominence in the ancient times.

Centuries before the foundation stone was laid in 2008 for the new port, there existed in the thriving town of Masulipatnam a port that was considered the best on the Coromandel coast by many chroniclers and geographers.

In A Manual of the Krishna District, Gordon Mackenzie writes: “The ancient geographers mention a port named ‘Maisolia’ on the Coromandel coast which was the point to which the caravan traffic extended from Persia and the emporium whence the ships sailed to ‘Golden Cheronese‘, and this may be the modern Masulipatnam.”

As nothing of the old port remains today, one can only imagine the glory that the port enjoyed, right from the early 16th Century, when it established trade links with many countries on the Eastern and Western side.

“It was the only place on the eastern coast from where the ships sailed for Pegu (Burma), Siam (Thailand), Bengal, Manila, Cochin, Madagascar, China, Mecca in the 17th Century,” says Salma Ahmed Farooqui, Professor-cum-Director at the H.K. Sherwani Centre for Deccan Studies at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad.

The ships arrived and departed from the port throughout the year as the port was known for its best anchorage, she adds. It is said one could always see 21 ships stationed at the port.

In their book Masulipatnam and Cambay—A History of Two Port Towns 1500-1800, S. Arasaratnam and Aniruddha Ray write that Masulipatnam was once a melting pot of diverse cultures, lifestyles, languages and beliefs. One could find Mongols, Turks, Persians, Tamils, Muslims, Telugus, Kannadigas, Orissans, Jews, Armenians, Peguans, Dutch, Malays, Javanese, English, Danes and French, they say.