India's Legendary East Coast

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India's Legendary East Coast takes readers on a kaleidoscopic journey starting from the delta of the Ganga on the Bay of Bengal and extending up to Land's End at Kanyakumari in the south. The region's much splendoured history, together with the picturesque landscape of the various places that it traverses, makes it distinctive and unique. This is veritably the sacred coast of this great country, the secular coast of the religious where lie numerous holy places of pilgrimage, belonging to different faiths and being respected equally by all.

Peppered with folktales, myths and anecdotes, the book sweeps the reader along with its accounts of India's coastline, closely interwoven with the many strands of legends of the country's hinterland. It has an old-world charm, making it interesting to those who love to travel to lesser known places on India's eastern coast.

P.K. De has worked as Photo-Officer, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India (Delhi), later taking charge as Deputy Director, Photo Division/Press Information Bureau. He was also Photo Editor to the international journal published by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

He has been writing for several leading dailies and prestigious journals on Travel and Tourism, and has contributed photographs in several books by reputed publishers. P.K. De was conferred the Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and the International Federation of Photographic Art, Paris. He is presently working on his next book, The Himalayan Deserts.

Discovering the East Coast of India

In those days, tourism in the country meant attracting travellers from abroad who would bring with them plenty of foreign exchange. Those who were at the helm of the tourism industry had the notion that there were only a few places in the country worth being shown to foreigners, namely, affluent American tourists who would feel happy to 'do India' in the shortest possible time. Hence only a few places in the North, not too far from Delhi, were the chosen destinations for quick sightseeing. Usually the itinerary would cover a few days of touring the Kashmir Valley followed by a compact air-tour package of another few days visiting the triangle of Agra-Khajuraho-Varanasi. Tourism in the heritage-rich South or in the little known lively East lacked the essential infrastructure needed for quick and comfortable sightseeing. Visits to the East or South were, therefore, very exclusive and limited to only those few serious travellers whose sojourn was for a longer duration, and who would not mind roughing it out in the process of exploring and gaining an intimate idea of a new, exotic country.

With his far-sighted outlook as well as realistic conception, Som Nath Chib brought about revolutionary changes in the development of tourism in India, Under his guidance scenic, historic and heritage sites across the country were identified, explored and brought under the fold of the Department of Tourism at the centre and the state level. The Department of Tourism emerged as an important autonomous body and was re-named the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) with a branch in every state. The newly formed ITDC not only catered to the needs of foreign travellers but would also guide and encourage domestic tourists. Accordingly, various state tourism departments were created, refurbished and upgraded with the necessary infrastructures to keep the tourism industry flourishing all year round and in each state. A monthly journal Traveller in India was published in Delhi while millions of posters, illustrated pamphlets, handouts and tourist information bulletins were printed for distribution to potential tourists. All these publications needed attractive pictures as illustrations.

To start my mission, I selected the ancient and hallowed grounds of the Konark Sun Temple in coastal Odisha on the Bay of Bengal. I landed there on a late summer afternoon travelling by a ramshackle public bus all the way from the state capital Bhubaneshwar. For any visitor today it would be impossible to get an idea as to what sort of a place today's crowded Konark was about fifty years ago. I still vividly recollect my first night at Konark which was then a tiny nondescript place, less than a village and totally devoid of human habitation after dark. During the day, only one or two isolated groups of pilgrims or some stray visitor like me would drop in to have a cursory look at the Sun Temple on the way to the holy shrine of Lord Jagannath at Puri. Nobody would spend a night at Konark, in fact there was no place to stay! Fortunately for me, on government duty, there was some shelter-a small PWD dak bungalow in the midst of an open field close to the temple. With a kerosene lamp in hand, the chowkidar (watchman) of the bungalow welcomed me in the two-room tenement that was empty except for a shaky charpoy (cot) and a small rusty iron table. Hardly before I could settle myself in these new surroundings, he advised me to hurry up for my meal, as the only dhaba (roadside eatery) of the place was about to close down as the sun had already set.

Coastal havens are the meeting places of seafaring people from different lands; like open windows, the coast displays glimpses of the inland country to mariners as well as to the world outside. The ambience of a country surrounded by the sea often permeates its littoral regions as well. A shoreline that shelters many ports and harbours also helps in promoting interactions between nations diffusing spontaneous exchange of ideas, beliefs, craft-skills and culture. The Indian mainland has an extensive coastline of 6,100 kilometres east to west, touching the Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari), the southernmost tip of the subcontinent. Originating in the east from Bengal's Gangetic delta, the coastline encompasses the great peninsula trailing up to the creek of the Arabian Sea near the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, close to the mouth of the Indus River. This enormous periphery covers eight major Indian states, almost half the total landmass of the entire country. Rich in history and diverse cultural heritage of its vast hinterland, India's coastline presents a remarkable image of itself which is unparalleled in the world.

The eastern wing of the coast, spread over nearly 2,800 kilometres, begins from the delta of the Ganga on the Bay of Bengal and extends up to Land's End at Kanyakumari in the south. However, its much splendoured history together with the kaleidoscopic images of the various places that it traverses, far outshines the colours of the remaining coastal region. The East Coast has several rare as well as distinctive features of its own. It may well be assumed that this is veritably the sacred coast of this great country, where lie numerous holy places of pilgrimage, such as the Ganga Sagar, Puri, Visakhapatnam, Puducherry (Pondicherry), Chidambaram, Rameshwaram, Nagore, Velankanni, Kanyakumari and others, belonging to different faiths and being respected equally by all. It is also the coast of confluences as the principal rivers of India-the Ganga, the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri, all being considered holy, flow into the Bay of Bengal. This is again, the glorious historic coast from where Indian civilisation as well as Buddhism spread to Sri Lanka, Burma and the countries of Southeast Asia. The eastern coast also happens to be the coast of myths and legends supported by the ancient scriptures and history of the land. Every bend of the eastern shoreline, each solitary cove on the Bay of Bengal has Its own unique account, interesting chronicles and favourite folktales. These anecdotes, often linked to the surrounding hinterland as well, enliven the cultural heritage of India as a whole. The accounts of India's coastline are thus closely interwoven with the many strands of legends of the country's hinterland.

The long stretch of the East Coast from coastal West Bengal till Land's End at Kanyakumari may be traversed by land routes trailing the extensive shoreline, though to cover this great distance by road all the way may be quite tough in places if not impossible. In fact, there is a national plan to construct an all-weather coastal route along the entire shoreline of India that would connect all the isolated strips of the beach roads. Presently, the two National Highways 45 and 45A and branch routes cover most of the stretch lying across the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

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