PUDUCHERRY: Along the banks of the Arasalar River in Karaikal stands a forgotten monument to South India’s maritime history. The centuries-old Pandagasalai Warehouse, one of the few surviving examples of a traditional river-port warehouse on the Coromandel Coast, offers a rare glimpse into a trading network in which rivers served as vital commercial arteries long before the advent of modern roads and railways.
Located barely two kilometres from the Bay of Bengal, the warehouse once functioned as a key logistical centre in Karaikal’s riverine-maritime trade network. Commodities from the fertile Cauvery delta were brought here, stored and redistributed before being transported to coastal ports and overseas destinations.
Research by Sudarshan R, architect and archaeologist, research associate at INTACH Pondicherry Chapter and former postgraduate student of the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Madras, highlights Karaikal’s importance as a feeder port in the larger Cauvery delta trading system.
The Arasalar, a distributary of the Cauvery, connected the agricultural hinterland with the Bay of Bengal, providing an economical route for transporting bulk commodities. Boats carrying rice, pulses, oilseeds, textiles and timber travelled downstream, with warehouses such as the Pandagasalai facilitating storage and onward movement of goods.
The port also played a role in the redistribution of imported commodities. Hardwood timber brought from Burma (present-day Myanmar), Thailand, Penang, Malaysia and Singapore is believed to have been unloaded along the Arasalar and stored in the warehouse before being supplied for construction, shipbuilding and other commercial activities.
Historical records reinforce the building’s commercial significance. Eighteenth-century French colonial maps identify the warehouse’s location. The Pandagasalai is owned by the Mu. Thamby Saibu Maraikayar, also known as M.T.S. Marican, whose descendants continue to retain the historic property.
A French Indian Government notarial deed dated May 27, 1914, records its ownership under the family and stipulated that the property should not be sold by the founders or their descendants in any generation, said Nihaal Maricar, one of the descendants of the family providing the document .
The town’s trading history, however, predates the French colonial period. The 12th-century literary work Periyapuranam, composed by Sekkizhar, describes Karaikal as a prosperous coastal settlement with merchant vessels and active waterways connecting it to the sea.
Traditions associated with Karaikal Ammaiyar also point to the presence of merchant communities engaged in overseas trade during the early medieval period.
Though Karaikal never emerged as a major international harbour on the scale of Kaveripattinam, Nagapattinam or Madras, its role as an intermediary trading centre was crucial.
Smaller feeder ports collected agricultural produce and other commodities from inland settlements and channelled them towards larger maritime gateways, sustaining commercial links across the Coromandel Coast and the wider Indian Ocean.
Today, the Pandagasalai Warehouse stands largely hidden behind modern construction and dense urban development. "Some have been rented out to hotels, shops and few have been encroached," says Nihaal Maricar.
Weathered by time and neglect, it has received little public attention despite its archaeological, architectural and historical value.