Bringing a piece of history to life, the Indian Navy formally inducted INSV Kaundinya, an ancient stitched ship, during a ceremony held at Naval base in Karwar, Karnataka.

The ship was inducted by Union Minister of Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

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In a statement, the Naval spokesperson stated that INSV Kaundinya is a stitched sail ship, based on a 5th century CE ship depicted in the paintings of Ajanta Caves. The vessel’s construction was undertaken using a traditional method of stitching by a team of skilled artisans from Kerala, led by master shipwright Shri Babu Sankaran. Over several months, the team painstakingly stitched wooden planks on the ship’s hull using coir rope, coconut fibre and natural resin.

The ship’s sails display motifs of the Gandabherunda and the Sun, her bow bears a sculpted Simha Yali , and a symbolic Harappan style stone anchor adorns her deck, each element evoking the rich maritime traditions of ancient India. 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.

The project was initiated through a tripartite agreement signed in Jul 2023 between the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Navy, and M/s Hodi Innovations, with funding from the Ministry of Culture. The ship was launched in Feb 2025 at Goa.

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 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 statement read.

Inducted as an Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV), Kaundinya will be based at Karwar. The ship will now embark on her next historic phase, involving preparations for a transoceanic voyage along the ancient trade route from Gujarat to Oman, scheduled for later this year.