1892.] L. A. Waddcll— Old Orissan port of Chitratala. 185 



•' depart for distant countries, and strangers come and go and stop here 

 " on their way. The walls of the city are strong and lofty. Here are 

 " found all sorts of rare and precious articles. Outside the city are five 

 "convents one after the other ; their storeyed towers are very high and 

 " carved with figures of the saints exquisitely." 1 



In the locality here indicated — in exact keeping geographically 

 with the distances and directions noted by the pilgrim — in the Maha- 

 nadi delta, about 15 miles below Cuttack, we find the older channel of 

 the great Mahanadi River is still known as the ' Ghitratola River,' 

 although no village or town of that name now exists on its banks. 

 But at the highest point of this part of the Mahanadi channel, where 

 the name of Ghitratola still clings to this branch of the Mahanadi, at 

 the village of Nendra, opposite Kendwapatana lock of the Kendrapara 

 canal, the villagers point out the site of the old port on what is now a 

 vast expanse of sand in the river bed. And they relate the tradition that 

 the town and port of Chitratola which stood there, was cut away by the 

 river long before the Mahratta occupation of Orissa ; and that most of 

 its inhabitants removed to the northern bank of the river and further 

 down the delta to Kendwapatana and Kendrapara. 



The former proximity of this port, the sea and its tidal character, 

 are attested by the name of the other branch, here given off by the 

 Chitratola River, viz., the Nun Nadi or ' The Salt River,' which again 

 joining the Chitratola River further down, discharges into the sea at 

 False Point. And along the Chitratola and Nun Rivers is found grow- 

 ing luxuriantly the dwarf Screw-pine which fringes the salt-water 

 swamps near the sea. 



The site of Chitratola is now inland about 50 miles from the pre- 

 sent coast line and about 15 miles above tidal limits — the seabord having 

 retired before the immense amount of silt brought down by the Maha- 

 nadi from the Central Indian Highlands, from a hill-area, according to 

 Hunter, 2 of 45,000 square miles. And, as the Mahanadi delta is very 

 short and deep, the alluvial accretion must have buried up much of the 

 remains seen by the pilgrims over 1,200 years ago. The great demand 

 also for blocks of stone to stay the erosions of the Mahanadi River and 

 latterly for the irrigation and transit canals must have consumed most 

 of the superficial stones. 



But there are still a good many old remains in the high tract 

 immediately to the south of and continuous with the eroded site of 

 Chitratola, consisting of several old tanks, carved lateritic blocks strewn 

 throughout the adjoining villages of Nendra andManikpur; and several 



1 Hiuen Tsiang, Beal's Translation, II, 205. 



2 Orissa, I, 47. 



