Indian Navy inducts ancient stitched ship INSV Kaundinya, celebrating India’s maritime heritage

New Delhi, May 22. In a landmark ceremony held at the Naval Base in Karwar on Wednesday, the Indian Navy formally inducted a unique reconstructed ancient vessel, naming it INSV Kaundinya. The event was presided over by Union Minister of Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, marking the culmination of a remarkable cultural and naval initiative to revive India’s historical shipbuilding traditions.

The newly inducted vessel is a stitched sail ship, meticulously crafted to replicate a 5th-century CE design depicted in the Ajanta cave paintings. The project was launched through a tripartite agreement in July 2023 between the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Navy, and M/s Hodi Innovations, with financial backing from the Culture Ministry.

Construction began with keel laying in September 2023, employing traditional shipbuilding techniques nearly lost to history. A team of skilled artisans from Kerala, led by veteran shipwright Babu Sankaran, used coir rope, coconut fibre, and natural resin to painstakingly stitch the wooden hull together – a method once prevalent in ancient Indian shipbuilding.

The Indian Navy played a pivotal role in the project, overseeing every aspect from design reconstruction to technical validation. With no surviving blueprints of such ships, the design was reverse-engineered from ancient artwork. The Navy collaborated with shipbuilders to recreate the vessel’s hull and rigging, validating the design through hydrodynamic model testing at IIT Madras and internal technical reviews.

INSV Kaundinya is adorned with culturally resonant symbols – its sails feature the Gandabherunda and the Sun, the bow carries a sculpted Simha Yali, and a Harappan-style stone anchor is placed on its deck. These elements reflect India’s deep-rooted maritime traditions.

Named after the legendary Indian mariner Kaundinya, who is believed to have sailed to Southeast Asia centuries ago, the ship is intended as a tribute to India’s ancient seafaring legacy of exploration, trade, and cultural exchange.

Now inducted as an Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV), Kaundinya will be based at Karwar and is preparing for a historic transoceanic voyage along the ancient maritime trade route from Gujarat to Oman later this year.