Cite
MLA
“INSV Kaundinya, the stitched ship.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/samudra/insv-kaundinya/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). INSV Kaundinya, the stitched ship. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/samudra/insv-kaundinya/
What defines it
- 01
Tripartite agreement July 2023; keel laid September 2023
- 02
Planks stitched with coir, no metal fastenings
- 03
Based on a ship painted at Ajanta
- 04
Inducted at Karwar, 21 May 2025
- 05
Porbandar to Muscat, 29 Dec 2025 – 14 Jan 2026
01Sewn, not nailed
The project began with an agreement in July 2023 between the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Navy and Hodi Innovations of Goa. Kerala craftsmen led by master shipwright Babu Sankaran laid the keel in September 2023 and stitched every plank with coir cord, sealing the seams with natural resins, with no nails or metal fastenings. The design follows a 5th-century ship painted in Ajanta, so the hull, the square sails and the steering oars had to be worked out afresh, with no surviving drawings.
02Named for a mariner
The ship was launched at Goa in February 2025 and inducted at Naval Base Karwar on 21 May 2025. She is named after Kaundinya, the Indian who, in the account preserved in Chinese records of the kingdom of Funan, sailed to the Mekong delta and married its queen, founding a royal line. The account belongs to the first centuries CE.
03To Muscat
On 29 December 2025 Kaundinya sailed from Porbandar for Oman, following one of the oldest trade routes of the western ocean, under Commander Vikas Sheoran. She reached Port Sultan Qaboos in Muscat on 14 January 2026 after about seventeen days at sea, and was received with a water salute.
