Bhubaneswar: The Indian Navy today inducted a ‘stitched ship’ handcrafted by the traditional boat makers of the country. The design of the stitched sail ship is inspired by a 5th century vessel depicted in the paintings of Ajanta caves.

The stitched ship, named as INSV Kaundinya, was inducted at a ceremony at Karwar Naval base in Karnataka. Union Minister of Culture, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

No other such ship exists or is in service anywhere in the world today, reports said.

The project was initiated through a tripartite agreement signed in Jul 2023 between the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Navy and Hodi Innovations, with funding from the Ministry of Culture.

Following the keel laying in September 2023, the vessel’s construction was undertaken using a traditional method of stitching by a team of skilled artisans from Kerala, led by master shipwright Babu Sankaran. Over several months, the team painstakingly stitched wooden planks on the ship’s hull using coir rope, coconut fibre and natural resin.

Ship 2

The Indian Navy played a central role in the project, overseeing the design, technical validation, and construction process. With no surviving blueprints of such vessels, the design had to be inferred from iconographic sources.

The Indian Navy collaborated with the shipbuilder to recreate the hull form and traditional rigging, and ensured that the design was validated through hydrodynamic model testing at the Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, and internal technical assessment.

The newly inducted vessel incorporates several culturally significant features. Its sails display motifs of the Gandabherunda and the Sun. The ship’s bow bears a sculpted Simha Yali while a symbolic Harappan style stone anchor adorns its deck.

Named after Kaundinya, the legendary Indian mariner who sailed across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia, the ship serves as a tangible symbol of India’s long-standing traditions of maritime exploration, trade, and cultural exchange.

Inducted as an Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV), Kaundinya will be based at Karwar. The ship is scheduled to embark on a transoceanic voyage along the ancient trade route from Gujarat to Oman later in this year.