On May 22, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy formally launched the commencement of works at Machilipatnam port. This has brought back focus on the forgotten port of Machilipatnam that rose to prominence in the ancient times.
Centuries before the foundation stone was laid in 2008 for the new port, there existed in the thriving town of Masulipatnam a port that was considered the best on the Coromandel coast by many chroniclers and geographers.
In A Manual of the Krishna District, Gordon Mackenzie writes: “The ancient geographers mention a port named ‘Maisolia’ on the Coromandel coast which was the point to which the caravan traffic extended from Persia and the emporium whence the ships sailed to ‘Golden Cheronese‘, and this may be the modern Masulipatnam.”
