Meet INS Kaundinya – Indian Navy's Masterpiece Ship Without Weapons And Engines

India.com

22-05-2025

New Delhi: The Indian Navy on May 21 brought back a vessel to its fleet that once lost to time. The hand-made one-of-a-kind wooden ship, INSV Kaundinya, is no ordinary vessel. It is a tribute to Kaundinya – one of India's earliest known ocean voyager. As legend suggests, he was a merchant who discovered a kingdom 2,000 years ego in Southeast Asia.
The story starts along Mekong Delta – today's southern Vietnam. The ship of Kaundinya that was carrying Indian merchants came under attack by pirates. He was forced to beach the ship; and when he did it, he was surrounded by a group led by a warrior queen – Soma.
The incident witnessed a dramatic twist wherein Soma fell in love with the brave mariner and tied knots with him. They together established the kingdom of Funan, which is considered to be the first in Southeast Asia.
Centuries later, the Navy is perhaps reviving Kaundinya's legacy. The newly manufactured ship is the masterpiece of the old craftsmanship. Built using 1,500-year-old techniques, the vessel has been made without using a single nail.
The artisans from Kerala have stitched its wooden planks together with coconut fibre, natural resin and coir rope. Like the ship once did when Indian traders sailed across the Indian Ocean to travel to Mesopotamia, Bahrain and Oman, etec., its square cotton sails catch the wind.
Talking to The Indian Express, the man behing the revival, Sanjeev Sanyal, who is a member in the prime minister's economic advisory council, described Kaundinya as the 'first Indian mariner we knew by name to have changed history'.
Though Indian trade through sea routes is as old as the Bronze Age, the names of only a few voyages survive. Preserved in Southeast Asian sources, Kaundinya's name is an exception.
Since there are no records of drawing of his ship, hence this vessel has been designed as per a 5th century painting found in the Ajanta caves that are one among the earliest visual clues of what ancient ships may have looked like. For additional inputs, foreign travellers' account and ancient scripture such as Yuktikalpataru have been relied upon.
The vessel is full of symbolism. Its sails feature the sun and the mythical two-headed eagle once used by the Kadamba dynasty – Gandabherunda. A mythical creature – Simha Yali – adorn the ship's bow. It even carries a Harappan-style stone anchor.
INSV Kaundinya has neither engine nor radar. Using square sails and steering oars, it runs only on wind power. The Navy will soon train a 15-member crew to master this lost art of sailing.
Part of grand cultural project of shipbuilders from Goa-based Hodi Innovations, the Ministry of Culture and the Indian Navy, the ship is slated to sail to Oman in late 2025 to retrace the ancient trade routes, which were one used by Indian merchants.
Speaking on the launching ceremony of the vessel, Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat termed it a 'resurgence of India's maritime glory'. India, with this ship, is not trying to revive only a boat, it is reviving a forgotten sea-borne legacy, a skill and a story.