Cite
MLA
“The dhow-builders of Mandvi.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/samudra/mandvi-dhows/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). The dhow-builders of Mandvi. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/samudra/mandvi-dhows/
What defines it
- 01
Port of the Jadejas of Kutch, traditionally founded 1580
- 02
Wooden hulls still built by hand on the river bank
- 03
Kutchi sailors and traders in Muscat and Zanzibar
01A port of Kutch
Mandvi was founded as the port of the Jadeja rulers of Kutch, traditionally in 1580 under Rao Khengarji I. Kutch had little farmland and a long coast, and its people went to sea. Kutchi sailors were known along the whole western ocean, and Kutchi merchants kept agents in Muscat and East Africa.
02Built on the beach
On the river bank by the town, hulls of hundreds of tonnes rise on wooden props. The shipwrights work from long experience more than drawings: the keel is laid, the frames set, the planks bent and fastened, and the hull caulked and oiled. Most of the ships today are ordered by owners in the Gulf and are fitted with engines, but the wooden hull is shaped as it has been for generations.
03Visiting Mandvi
Mandvi is about 60 km from Bhuj. The shipyard can be seen from the bridge over the Rukmavati and from the river front below the old town. Go early, when the carpenters are at work before the heat; by noon the beach is quiet. The town also keeps the Vijay Vilas Palace of the Kutch rulers, and its beach faces the open Gulf of Kutch, the water these ships were built for.