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

New Delhi: The Indian Navy on May 21 introduced again a vessel to its fleet that when misplaced to time. The hand-made one-of-a-kind wood send, INSV Kaundinya, is not any bizarre vessel. It is a tribute to Kaundinya – certainly one of India’s earliest identified ocean voyager. As legend suggests, he was once a service provider who came upon a kingdom 2,000 years ego in Southeast Asia.

The tale begins alongside Mekong Delta – lately’s southern Vietnam. The send of Kaundinya that was once wearing Indian traders got here below assault by means of pirates. He was once pressured to seashore the send; and when he did it, he was once surrounded by means of a gaggle led by means of a warrior queen – Soma.

The incident witnessed a dramatic twist by which Soma fell in love with the courageous mariner and tied knots with him. They in combination established the dominion of Funan, which is regarded as to be the primary in Southeast Asia.

Centuries later, the Navy is possibly reviving Kaundinya’s legacy. The newly manufactured send is the masterpiece of the outdated craftsmanship. Built the usage of 1,500-year-old tactics, the vessel has been made with out the usage of a unmarried nail.

The artisans from Kerala have stitched its wood planks along with coconut fibre, herbal resin and coir rope. Like the send as soon as did when Indian investors sailed around the Indian Ocean to shuttle to Mesopotamia, Bahrain and Oman, etec., its sq. cotton sails catch the wind.

Talking to The Indian Express, the person behing the revival, Sanjeev Sanyal, who’s a member within the top minister’s financial advisory council, described Kaundinya because the “first Indian mariner we knew by name to have changed history”.

Though Indian industry via sea routes is as outdated because the Bronze Age, the names of just a few voyages live on. Preserved in Southeast Asian assets, Kaundinya’s title is an exception.

Since there aren’t any information of drawing of his send, therefore this vessel has been designed as according to a fifth century portray discovered within the Ajanta caves which are one in all the earliest visible clues of what historic ships will have gave the look of. For further inputs, overseas travellers’ account and historic scripture equivalent to Yuktikalpataru had been relied upon.

The vessel is stuffed with symbolism. Its sails function the solar and the legendary two-headed eagle as soon as utilized by the Kadamba dynasty – Gandabherunda. A legendary creature – Simha Yali – enhance the send’s bow. It even carries a Harappan-style stone anchor.

INSV Kaundinya has neither engine nor radar. Using sq. sails and guidance oars, it runs best on wind energy. The Navy will quickly teach a 15-member staff to grasp this misplaced artwork of cruising.

Part of grand cultural challenge of shipbuilders from Goa-based Hodi Innovations, the Ministry of Culture and the Indian Navy, the send is slated to sail to Oman in overdue 2025 to retrace the traditional industry routes, that have been one utilized by Indian traders.

Speaking at the launching rite of the vessel, Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat termed it a “resurgence of India’s maritime glory”. India, with this send, isn’t seeking to revive just a boat, it’s reviving a forgotten sea-borne legacy, a talent and a tale.