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.
While the port saw a gradual rise in its popularity after the Dutch set up a factory in 1606, some historical records say that the town was an established trading centre during the Satavahana rule itself, from the 2nd Century BC to the 2nd Century AD.
“The Satavahana rulers developed umpteen ports during their rule and gave much importance to trading. They also engaged in a trade with Rome and China. From Masulipatnam, one of the leading ports in those times, spices, sugar, cotton cloth, and elephants were exported, and pottery was imported from Rome. During excavations, pottery was discovered in many places across the country,” says D. Kanna Babu, former Superintending Archaeologist of the Temple Survey Project (Southern Region) of the Archaeological Survey of India.
The trade suffered a dent after the fall of Roman Empire, and after the Ikshvaku rule began.
The port under the Qutb Shahi rulers
The port revived its significance only after 1,200 years in the 15th century when South India was under the rule of the Vijayanagara Empire. After the Quli Qutb Shahs of the Golconda kingdom took over, the port was developed, Ms. Farooqui adds.
The three main ports under their rule were: Masulipatnam, Nizamapatnam and Narsapore. The international market port at Masulipatnam connected the Qutb shahi kingdom to the world outside and also the hinterland. They also built a road from Masulipatnam to Hyderabad, she says.
From the 1570s, when Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah ruled, the trading activity only witnessed growth and reached its peak during the rule of Abdullah Qutb Shah in the late 17th century.
“The concentration of several weaving towns, up to 50 miles from Masulipatnam, gave the port an edge over the other ancient ports of its time. The city was famous for chintz, the finest cloth that commanded high price in the overseas market in those days,” says Ms. Farooqui.
Perhaps this is why Masulipatnam was referred to in Golconda official records as Bandar-I-Mubarak, explains Mohammad Silar, a retired Tehsildar and who has been studying the history of Machilipatnam for years. He says that the export-import business became so lucrative for traders and rulers that they profited immensely. “Whatever was exported was sold 10 times the rate here,” Mr. Silar says.
The decline
However, the trade and the popularity did not last long. One of the reasons that led to the decline of the operations was the exposure of the city to natural calamities. As per historians, there were three major events in its history that changed the course of the city, one occurred in the 17th century, the second in 1867 and the third in 1977.
When a big tidal wave hit the coast in 1867, around 30,000 people died in the port city.
Besides, after the Mughals took over the port from the Qutb Shahis, the decline was quicker. “The Mughals only focussed on getting land revenues from the Deccan, one of the richest kingdoms. They did not care much about developing the port or maintaining the sea trade. The last to come were the Nizams, who gave away the northern Circars (the coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh) to the British,” Ms. Farooqui says. By the time the British took over the reins of the port, it had already lost its sheen.
What remains today
According to Mr. Silar, it was in 1606 that the Dutch first set up a factory followed by the British in 1611. Later, the British also laid a railway track here and introduced a train connecting the east coast with the west to transport the goods. Later, French, Portuguese and Danes also settled in the city. Today, what remains of the bygone era is a Dutch fort, or Bandar Kota in local parlance, built in 1617. It served as the secretariat of the Dutch for a long time. Located 2 km from the sea, it was here that they stored goods to be exported.
After the Dutch left, the fort was occupied by the British. The Dutch fort survived the biggest calamities the port city has seen because of the material used in its construction.
A canal that flows in front of the fort used to be the connecting point between the sea and the fort to transport the materials. There is also an armoury house nearby, where imported weapons were stored and sent to north India, Mr. Silar says.
But except for the armoury house, the fort and other buildings near it have been in a neglected state for a long time. As per the Assistant, Multi-Tasking Staff, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Veeranjaneyulu, only five or six people visit the fort on weekends. But every year, in the winter months, a few Dutch people make it a point to see the place.
The port city held more importance, both culturally and economically, than Vijayawada. Noble College, which was one of the oldest colleges in the country that followed the English system of education, was set up in Machilipatnam in 1842, even before the Madras University was established, D . Srinivasa Rao, a professor from the Noble College, says.
It is said that the number of deaths in the 1867 cyclone was three times the total population of Vijayawada. The last ship to have reached the Machilipatnam port was in 1964, believes the professor.
Mr. Kannababu says that by the time the fort was handed over to the ASI, it was already badly damaged. “The fort was exposed to salt breeze for centuries. The ASI took up conservation work many times, but since it is an ancient fort, nothing much can be done,” he adds. However, Mr. Silar believes that at least care should have been taken to keep illegal occupation under check.
