India sails an ancient ship to bolster its ambitions at sea

NEW DELHI – Some time in the mid-first century AD, an ambitious Indian merchant named Kaundinya set sail from the country’s eastern coast, headed for the Mekong Basin. He crossed the Indian Ocean and arrived in what is today most likely Cambodia.

One of the earliest recorded Indian maritime journeys to South-east Asia, it proved seminal but was not smooth sailing.

Kaundinya and his crew came under attack from Liuye, a local maritime ruler, and her forces. He managed to fight them off, even impressing Liuye, who fell in love and married him.

Together, the couple went on to found the kingdom of Funan, which included parts of present-day Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Its states were heavily influenced by Indian traditions, which set the stage for wider Indian political, religious and cultural influence in the region.

Cut to 2026. An Indian Navy ship named Kaundinya arrived in Oman on Jan 14 after retracing an ancient trade route from Gujarat, on India’s western coast.

It is no ordinary vessel, but a

recreation of an ancie

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hip

based on a fifth-century cave painting in western India.

It was built in Goa using traditional “stitching” techniques, where wooden planks are held together with coir rope instead of nails or metal fasteners. Propelled by only the wind, it has two large sails bearing motifs of the mythical Gandabherunda, a double-headed eagle, and the sun.

This vessel, along with its 17-member crew, arrived to a grand welcome in Oman’s capital, Muscat. The 1,400km journey, which took around 17 days, affirmed India’s historical tradition in ship-building and maritime exploration.

The ship’s maiden voyage to Muscat – agreed to in 2023 when Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tarik visited India – highlights both historical and contemporary naval connections between India and Oman, and strengthens their people-to-people exchanges.

Visitors in Muscat got hands-on access to the ship, learning first-hand from the team members about India’s centuries-old maritime heritage.

Kaundinya is part of India’s broader soft power strategy to revive its ancient maritime legacy and highlight its historic trading and cultural links with littoral states in the Indian Ocean as a way to build stronger ties with them.

It is also a move to vaunt India’s historical record as a major maritime power, from ship-building to global trade, to reinforce its present-day standing.

Back in India, the stitched ship – the navy’s first – has captured public and media attention, with the crew’s live social media updates during the transoceanic voyage drawing thousands of online followers. It has also made it to school textbooks.

Dr Hemanth Kumar, officer-in-charge of INSV Kaundinya and a commander with the Indian Navy, said by phone from Oman that one important goal of the project was to develop Indians’ “maritime consciousness” and highlight the sea’s centrality to India’s economy, security and identity.

Retired Admiral Karambir Singh, chairman of the National Maritime Foundation and a former chief of the Indian Navy, said that while India had been “sea-blind” for long, recent efforts such as Kaundinya’s voyage have helped increase public awareness about maritime issues.

“If you have a population that is aware of the country’s maritime history and therefore the potential of its sea power, we will be able to benefit more from the sea,” he said.

India has one of the world’s oldest maritime histories, going back around 5,000 years to the Harappan Civilisation, when it traded with ports in the Persian Gulf and East Africa. Over the years, Indian mariners plied oceans far and wide – both in the East and West – to trade goods such as textiles, spices and precious stones.

Kaundinya’s Harappan-style stone anchor is a nod to this historical detail.

Lothal, once a key Harappan port town in Gujarat, is also where the Indian government is building a National Maritime Heritage Complex.

“It is not for nothing that India is the only country with an ocean named after it,” said Mr Sanjeev Sanyal, an author and historian who conceived the Kaundinya project and was on board the ship. “Even the name Singapore is derived from Sanskrit for ‘lion city’.”

As a hub of a thriving Indian Ocean trade system for millennia, India spread its influence more through commerce and culture, not coercion or violence. The same currents that guided India’s historic trade now drive its strategy for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

“Unlike the Europeans, who used the oceans for conquest and for power and control, Indian maritime forays were mostly peaceful,” said Admiral (Ret) Singh.

“Therefore, when we talk of free open seas, it comes from a usable past.”

The question now though is whether India can chart a course from its maritime legacy to contemporary clout.

For instance, will it succeed in re-establishing itself as a major ship-building centre? Progress has been slow so far. So too for Project Mausam, the diplomatic initiative launched in 2014 to rekindle ties with littoral states from East Africa to South-east Asia, though Kaundinya’s voyage to Oman may give this fresh momentum.

The vessel, which will return to India in February, will be used for other goodwill visits, including one to South-east Asia, most likely from a port along Odisha’s coast on the east.

That journey will not just celebrate the legendary mariner Kaundinya’s legacy, but also Bali Jatra, an ancient Odisha maritime festival that commemorates the time when many other Odia mariners sailed across the Bay of Bengal to Bali and South-east Asia for trade and cultural exchange.