Ancient Port of Palura: the hub of Kalingan maritime trade across world

Palura, the ancient port of Kalinga, mentioned by the Greek  geographer Ptolemy in the second century A.D. and in a South Indian inscription of the third century, was an internationally important emporium further to the Southwest, most likely at the Rishikulya  estuary or nearby, on the Southern elongation of Chilika Lake, whereas village known as Palur still exists today. According to Ptolemy, there was a place near Palur, called Apheterion, the “point of  departure” for ships bound to Chryse,  the “Golden Land”, the “ Suvarnabhumi” of South East Asia. It is quite likely that the prominent hillock South of the present village Palur, which in fact, is the highest peak on the coast up to the mouth of the Ganges, and which was known to the Portuguese of the sixteenth century as Serra de Palura served as a landmark for early seafarers in the Bay of Bengal.