Indian Navy's stitched sailing vessel to undertake maiden overseas voyage to Oman on December 29
NEW DELHI: INSV Kaundinya, the Indian Navy's pioneering stitched sailing vessel that revives India's ancient shipbuilding and seafaring traditions, will undertake her maiden overseas voyage on 29 Dec 2025. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Tuesday said, The vessel will be flagged off from Porbandar, Gujarat, for Muscat, Oman, symbolically retracing the historic maritime routes that connected India with the wider Indian Ocean world for millennia. Inspired by depictions of ancient Indian ships and constructed entirely using traditional stitched-plank techniques, INSV Kaundinya represents a rare convergence of history, craftsmanship and modern naval expertise. INSV Kaundinya is a stitched sail ship, based on a 5th-century ship depicted in the paintings of Ajanta Caves. The project was initiated through a tripartite agreement signed in Jul 2023 between the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Navy, and Hodi Innovations, with funding from the Ministry of Culture. Following the keel laying in September 2023, the vessel's construction was undertaken using a traditional method of stitching by a team of skilled artisans from Kerala, led by master shipwright 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 was launched in Feb 2025 at Goa. Unlike contemporary vessels, her wooden planks are stitched together using coconut coir rope and sealed with natural resins, reflecting a shipbuilding tradition once prevalent along India's coasts and across the Indian Ocean. This technology, MoD added, enabled Indian mariners to undertake long-distance voyages to West Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia long before the advent of modern navigation and metallurgy. The project was undertaken through a tripartite MoU between the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Navy and Hodi Innovations as part of India's efforts to rediscover and revive indigenous knowledge systems. As the MoD earlier said, the boat has been Built by traditional artisans under the guidance of master shipwright Babu Sankaran and supported by extensive research, design and testing by the Indian Navy and academic institutions, the vessel is fully seaworthy and capable of oceanic navigation. Named after the legendary mariner Kaundinya, who is believed to have sailed from India to Southeast Asia in ancient times, the ship embodies India's historic role as a maritime nation.
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