Puhar: Reconstructing a Lost Chola Port

Published by Orugallu Andhalu


There is a strange problem with Puhar. Ancient Tamil literature describes a busy port where ships arrived, goods moved between land and sea, merchants from different regions lived alongside one another, and the Kaveri met the Bay of Bengal. Today, much of the archaeological landscape associated with that port lies along and beneath a coastline that is no longer where it once was.

The question is not simply whether Puhar existed. The evidence already makes its existence difficult to dismiss. The harder question is this: What happened to a port that once stood at the meeting point of the Kaveri and the sea?

 The City at the Mouth of the Kaveri

Puhar, also known as Poompuhar, Kaveripattinam and Kaveripoompattinam, stood on the northern bank of the Kaveri near its meeting with the Bay of Bengal. It functioned as a flourishing port and an important coastal centre of the early Cholas described in Sangam literature. Its geographical position was central to the city's identity, connecting the interior through the Kaveri with maritime routes across the Bay of Bengal.

Karikala Chola occupies an important place in the historical memory of Puhar. Later historical traditions associate him with the expansion of Kaveripattinam and with major works on the Kaveri's embankments. Puhar's importance, however, is also visible independently in the Sangam literature, which describes the city as an active port connected to the river, the coast and long-distance trade.

A Port Described by Its Own Literature

The Tamil poem Pattinappalai provides a vivid description of Puhar's commercial life, detailing ships, warehouses, merchants and goods. Goods destined for export were marked with the Chola tiger emblem by customs officials. The city's urban layout was structured into the coastal harbour district called Maruvurppakkam and the inland residential sector called Pattinappakkam. A bustling day market, the Nalangadi, operated between these two sectors.

The literary description also presents Puhar as a cosmopolitan settlement, with Yavanas and people from different regions represented among its inhabitants and traders. The picture that emerges is not simply of a harbour where ships stopped, but of a city whose economy depended on the movement of people and goods between the river, the hinterland and the sea.

Beyond Tamil literature, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea lists Camara, Poduca and Sopatma among the ports on the eastern Indian coast. Later scholars have identified Camara with Kaveripattinam. Ptolemy refers to a "Khaberis emporion" associated with the Kaveri. The geographical information preserved in these ancient sources does not fit the modern landscape neatly, raising an important possibility: the river channels and coastline known to ancient observers were not necessarily the same as those seen today.

Tradition vs. Documented History

The epic Manimekhalai records that Puhar was swallowed by the sea because the annual festival of Indra was not properly observed. The story belongs to the religious and literary world of the epic and provides a traditional explanation for the city's disappearance.

Modern archaeology tells a different kind of story. Marine investigations have documented submerged structures, ancient pottery, ring wells and a buried palaeochannel associated with the Kaveri. These findings demonstrate that the coastal landscape around Puhar underwent substantial transformation. They do not, however, prove the supernatural explanation preserved in Manimekhalai.

The evidence for marine inundation also has to be treated chronologically. Archaeological and geological studies have identified high-energy marine events affecting the region, including evidence interpreted as a Chola-period tsunami roughly a thousand years ago. That evidence is important, but it should not automatically be presented as the event that destroyed the earlier Sangam-period Puhar. The archaeological record points instead toward a coastline that changed over more than one period.

What the Archaeologists Found

Archaeological excavations have documented the physical reality of the settlement. At Kilayur, excavations revealed substantial brick structures interpreted as ancient wharves, possibly associated with an earlier channel of the Kaveri. At Vanagiri, archaeologists also documented an inlet channel connected with a reservoir, showing how water management formed part of the settlement landscape.

At Pallavanesvaram, excavations revealed a Buddhist establishment, adding another dimension to the cultural landscape of the port. Later archaeological phases at the site show that the settlement remained active and underwent architectural changes over succeeding centuries. Other excavated and recovered materials, including imported ceramics, further demonstrate that the Puhar region participated in wider exchange networks.

 Marine archaeological exploration extended this picture beyond the present shoreline. Investigations in the intertidal zone recovered terracotta ring wells, brick structures and storage jars. Offshore surveys also identified submerged stone and brick structures at different depths.

One of the most significant findings was not a building at all, but a river. Sub-bottom surveys identified a buried palaeochannel of the Kaveri, approximately 300 to 500 metres wide and buried beneath the seabed. The discovery provides physical evidence that the river system itself has changed substantially over time.

Recent underwater exploration has added another layer to the picture. In September 2026, the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology reported the recovery of more than 250 ceramic pieces during its latest phase of exploration, including a broken torpedo-jar fragment believed to have originated in West Asia. The fragment was recovered about 10 metres below the surface and around two kilometres from the present coast. Four ring wells, measuring roughly 60 to 65 centimetres in diameter, were also documented.

The archaeological team has suggested that the ring wells may indicate the presence of a palaeochannel in the area. That interpretation remains preliminary. The new finds therefore add evidence to the maritime and changing-landscape story of Puhar, while further investigation is still required to establish their precise chronology and context.

Our Interpretation

The strongest reconstruction of Puhar is a layered one.

The city developed at a strategically important meeting point between the Kaveri and the sea. Its literature describes a commercial economy dependent on both inland and maritime networks, while archaeology provides physical evidence for settlement, water management, Buddhist activity, imported goods and structures extending toward what is now the seabed.

Over time, the physical setting changed. The buried Kaveri palaeochannel indicates that the river system shifted. Submerged archaeological remains demonstrate that parts of the ancient landscape now lie beneath the sea. Coastal erosion and shoreline change clearly played an important role, although the exact rate and timing of that change cannot be reconstructed with certainty from the available evidence.

 Historical maps and hydrographic evidence have been used to estimate substantial shoreline recession. However, projecting a rate of roughly one metre per year backward over very long periods is an extrapolation rather than a direct measurement of ancient coastal change.

The disappearance of parts of Puhar was therefore probably not the result of a single process. River-course changes, coastal erosion, changing sea levels and possibly high-energy marine events may have contributed at different times. The archaeological record is better understood as evidence for a changing coastal environment than as proof of one single catastrophic moment.

What Remains Uncertain

We do not yet have a complete map of ancient Puhar. We cannot assign a definite function to every offshore stone structure, nor can we trace the exact trajectory of every imported ceramic vessel. The relationship between individual submerged structures and the ancient settlement is still being investigated.

The precise chronology and provenance of the newly recovered West Asian torpedo-jar fragment and Iranian or West Asian glazed pottery also require further study. Their presence strengthens the evidence for Puhar's participation in long-distance maritime exchange, but the new discoveries should not be used to establish a precise trade route or date until the archaeological analysis is complete.

The same caution applies to the question of the city's disappearance. The evidence supports substantial coastal transformation and the submergence of parts of the ancient landscape. It does not yet allow us to reconstruct one definitive sequence of events that explains exactly when, how and why every part of Puhar disappeared.

The Port Beneath a Changing Coast

Puhar survives today in the poetry that remembered its ships and merchants, and in the brick structures, ring wells, pottery and buried river channels preserved beneath the modern landscape and seabed.
The ancient city has not disappeared completely. What has changed is the landscape in which it once stood.

Its river moved. Its shoreline changed. Parts of its built environment became buried or submerged. Archaeologists are now recovering fragments of that landscape from places that were once connected to the living city.

Puhar is therefore not a city we can simply uncover. It is a landscape we must reconstruct from fragments: from ancient literature, excavated structures, imported pottery, buried river channels and the archaeological evidence preserved beneath a changing coast.

Read More

• Srirangam: The Making of a Sacred City
• Erumbeshwarar Temple: History and Architecture
• Arunachalam: The Sacred Hill of Tiruvannamalai

Sources

• Pattinappālai-Kadiyalūr Uruttirangannanar. Sangam literary source describing Puhār's port, ships, warehouses, trade, markets and inhabitants.
• Manimekalai-Sīthalai Sāttanār. Important literary source for the traditional account of Puhār's submergence.
• Silappadikaram-Ilango Adigal. Tamil epic describing Puhār's urban life, layout, festivals and cultural setting.
• Periplus of the Erythraean Sea-Ancient maritime account describing ports on India's eastern coast, including Camara.
• Ptolemy, Geographia-Ancient geographical source referring to the Khaberis emporion and the Khaberis river.
• T. G. Aravamuthan, The Kaveri, the Maukharis and the Sangam Age, University of Madras, 1925.
• K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, The Culture and History of the Tamils, 1964.
• K. V. Soundara Rajan, Kaveripattinam Excavations 1963–73, Archaeological Survey of India, Memoir No. 90, 1994.
• Sundaresh and A. S. Gaur, Marine Archaeological Investigations on Tamil Nadu Coast, India: An Overview, National Institute of Oceanography.
• Rajendran et al., “Geoarchaeological evidence of a Chola-period tsunami from an ancient port at Kaveripattinam on the southeastern coast of India,” Geoarchaeology, 2011.
• Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology, Kaveripoompattinam.
• NOAA, Poompuhar Exploration.
• The Hindu, “Torpedo jar fragment, ring wells found in underwater archaeological exploration off the Poompuhar coast,” September 22, 2026.
• The Economic Times, “Poompuhar, a 2,000-year-old port city built by the Cholas was lost beneath the sea...,” September 23, 2026.

Image Credits

• Satukkabhootham sculpture, Poompuhar-K7.india (மு.இசைசவன்), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Silappadikaram relief, Poompuhar-Ssriram mt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Pallavaneswaram archaeological excavations-Ssriram mt, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Poompuhar coastline-MARIKANNAN G, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Disclaimer:
Information in this article is based on traditional history, folklore, temple literature, and publicly available sources. Ritual procedures, timings, and guidelines may vary, especially during festivals or special occasions. Visitors are advised to confirm accurate details directly with the official Sri Kalahasti temple authorities.

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