1The tropical climate is not favourable to the development of good horse breeds. They neither have the qualities nor the output of the Arab breeds, fruits of a long selection process and reasoned crossbreeding; moreover, in the past, for the requirements of the armies and rulers, more robust horses had to be imported from Central and Western Asia.

2In rural India, therefore, horses are not much used. Being a noble animal, it plays a minor role in the farming economy and, harnessed to light vehicles furnished with a single pole or two shafts, it is used for fast transport of passengers in towns or large villages.

3On the other hand, the ox (Bos indicus) is the draught animal par excellence of the Indian countryside. Its qualities, requirements and output vary according to the local breeds; it is, however, used everywhere for rural transport, and it has been calculated that in 1963 70% of the inland traffic was carried out by this animal.4

4The general use of these beasts, which can be easily yoked on either side of a single shaft, explains why most of the country carts are pole-drawn vehicles.

5Bullock carts, however, are not built according to uniform designs; they bear strong marks of originality, and for this reason deserve our attention.

6In order to study them, we have documentation at our disposal, which varies in quality according to the regions, but it is sufficient to put forward an attempt at classification.5

Principles of Classification

7Initially, we could think that it is enough to consider the terminology in order to define a type corresponding to a name. The equivalent of our word, carriage, a general term signifying means of conveyance or transport, wheeled vehicle, exists in the Indian languages (gāṛī, vaṇṭi),6 which are also rich in particular names to designate the various country carts. But, if in places, a name usually designates a well-defined type, on a larger scale, it corresponds to different types of vehicles.

8Thus, the most common term used to name the robust country cart in North India is gāṛā,7 which, in certain parts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, represents a primitive vehicle with solid wheels, whereas, in Bihar or Panjab, it corresponds to a lighter vehicle.8 Conversely, the same type may bear different names in the same region, as can be seen in the example of Bihar, where the gāṛā described by Grierson9 is also locally called chakṛā and chaghus gāṛī.

9Many similar examples can be found: they show that a system of classification of the types of carriages based on terminology is not very significant.

10To categorise them according to the animal species used in pulling them: bullock carts – bail gāṛī (H.), māṭṭu vaṇṭi (Tam.), buffalo carts – bhaiṃsā gāṛī (H.), camel carts – ūṃt gāṛī (H.), horse carriages– ghoṛ bahal (H.), kutirai vaṇṭi (Tam.), does not appear to be more satisfactory.

11To make a distinction between light and heavy vehicles, as in Malava,10 between kṛṣāṇī, bhārkāśī and savārī gāḍī, carts used on farms, for transporting goods, and for carrying passengers, is as artificial, since most of these vehicles are fit for these various uses by adding a few additional pieces.

12What is important is the structure of the vehicle: wheel, axle, body. This is what we will consider.

1. The Wheel

13The study of the wheel can be viewed in two ways, according to whether we consider its morphology or its dimensions.11

14According to the morphology, three types can be distinguished: the solid wheel, the radially spoked wheel and the wheel with paired cross-bars.

A. Types of Wheels12 (fig. I, A & B)

a) Solid or Semi-Solid Wheels (fig. II and photos 1–6, 32–35)

15Solid wheels are still found in vehicles used in several archaic zones scattered within the subcontinent, particularly in the eastern part of Madhya Pradesh, the centre of Maharashtra and Karnataka, the southern part of Bihar and in some pockets of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, to which should be added Sindh in Pakistan.13

16They are made of wood or stone. Of wood: when they are small, as is the case in certain regions of North-West India (see fig. II, e), it is a simple slice cut in a trunk; when their diameter is bigger, it is made of butt-jointed beams (usually three in number) (fig. II, a, b, c), sometimes fixed by two wooden or metal strips perpendicular to the joints, sometimes by an iron band (fig. II, a, b, c and photos 2, 5, 32, 33).

17In Sindh and certain parts of Rajasthan, the wheel is hollowed out and the beams are lightened, the whole set being strengthened by transversal bands or by a circular iron band (fig. II, d; fig. V, h and photos 6, 34).

18In some places in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,14 carts are still found with stone wheels,15 cut in granite-gneissic rock, with a bulge in the centre with a hole set in it, large enough for the axle provided with a pin (photos 3, 4, 35).

19Today, the solid wheel is still used in the large processional chariots of the southern peninsula (Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh)16 (see photos 69–80).

b) Radially Spoked Wheels (fig. III and photos 7–16, 36–49)

20If the form of the various components of the wheel with radial spokes varies according to the region, apparently the number of spokes does not change much: the wheel of the bullock carts is usually provided with 12 spokes (fig. III, g, h and photos 7–16, 36–44, 46–49); there are only 10 for the wheel of the light vehicles (fig. III, b, f and photos 47, 48); 14 for the light horse carriage (fig. XXVII and photo 45).

21The spokes are fastened to the hub and the felloe through a mortise and tenon joint. The felloe is made of several segments; two spokes are fixed to each segment, i. e. five segments for 10, six for 12 and seven for 14 spokes. It is provided with an iron outer ring (photos 36–42).

22This type of wheel is predominant in all the southern regions,17 in Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh; it is also seen in the northern plains, in the districts of Sahasram and Purniya in Bihar, of Ghazipur and Baliya in Uttar Pradesh, in Kashmir, in lower Bengal and Assam;18 in Gujarat; and in Orissa it coexists with a third type of wheel, the paired spoked wheel.

c) Wheels with Paired Cross-Bars (fig. IV and photos 17, 18, 25, 51–56, 62, 66, 67)

23This is a type of cross-bar wheel. It is made of three pairs of two parallel bars of varying thickness, which run completely through the hub from one segment of the felloe (they are six in number) to the opposite one; while crossing each other in the hub, the second pair runs through the first pair and the third pair through the second and first, as shown in fig. XXII, B, and photos 51–54, each bar terminating at each end in the felloe.

24When the wheels are of small diameter, as in Rajasthan and Gujarat, the felloe is made of only four segments to which only two pairs of cross-bars are fastened, as may be seen in fig. IV, b and photo 55.

25This type of wheel is found across the entire northern plains from Panjab to Bengal and in certain parts of Gujarat and Orissa.19

d) Thickness of the Felloe

26In the last two types, we can focus on certain wheels according to the thickness of the felloe, irrespective of their structure (radially spoked or wheels with paired cross-bars).

27The wheels of North-West India are provided with a massive felloe and, in certain districts of Rajasthan, the felloes are made of wooden rings which are so thick that the length of the spokes does not exceed a few centimetres (fig. III, a-d; fig. IV, b, g and photos 57–61).

28On the other hand, in Eastern India, the wheels are thin and light (see photos 50, 56).

B. Size of the Wheels

29Another way to appreciate the wheel is to consider its dimensions (fig. I, B).

30Four kinds of wheel can be distinguished (small, medium, high, very high)20 which are distributed as follows.

31The small wheels are found in two regions: in Rajasthan and Kachch, as well as in the centre of the peninsula (fig. III, a-f; fig. IV, a, b and photos 17, 19, 20, 22, 23).

32The medium-sized wheels can be seen in a zone composed of the western part of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, and various regions forming a kind of strip from Maharashtra to Assam (fig. III, g and photo 30).

33The high wheels are present in the south and east of the previous regions, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and also in pockets inside Gujarat, Maharashtra and a large area of the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar (figs. XXII, XXIV and photos 11–14).

34The highest wheels are built in Kerala, in the southern part of Tamilnadu and the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, where they can exceed diameters of 1.80 m21 (fig. III, h, i; fig. XVI-XVII and photos 7–10, 15).

35A deeper survey would show that the reality is more complex, since, inside each region, the diameter of the wheels varies,22 and it is certain that a more detailed distribution map would be different. Moreover, this classification based on size is, to a large extent, artificial: the small wheels of Rajasthan with their massive felloe have little in common with the light wheels of central Maharashtra (fig. III, a-d, f).

36To fully appreciate the diversity of the Indian carriage, besides the wheel, we have to consider the axle, its supports and the body.

2. Axles, Supports, Body

37Unfortunately, classification has not been made according to the frame and machinery on which the body is supported. It is of great importance, because, in India, there are two distinct types of arrangement of wooden pieces connecting the wheel units or axle to the chassis frame.

38A. The country carts of the whole peninsula south of the Vindhyas are simple in design. The body is a flat platform of wood, provided with an iron (or wood) axle tree which crosses all the way under the cart, at either end of which the wheel rotates (photos 9–10, 13).

39Though they may have platforms and panelled sides of various forms, the main distinction which can be made between these vehicles is the size of their (radially spoked) wheels, as shown above.

40A more detailed survey at the taluk level would allow us to find distinguishing features and refine our description of the different elements of the body.

41B. To the north of the Vindhyas, within a large (not clearly defined) triangle which includes the regions situated between Panjab, Gujarat and Bengal, many carriages are more complicated in their design.

42For several of them, each wheel has an axle of its own (photos 61–64) which, as it projects through the hub, is entirely supported by struts.

43It is either a V-shaped double strut (tulāvā) (fig. III, a, b, d, e; fig. IV, a, c and photos 19, 20, 48, 57) or a plain horizontal plank (fig. IV, g and photos 18, 25, 65–68) fastened to the body of the cart by chains or ropes.

44Sometimes a curved piece (paiñjanī) is added to this double-strut, which passes under the point of the axle where it projects from the double strut and thus further supports the axle; it is pulled tightly up against the axle by three ties (fig. III, b, d, e; fig. IV, a, c, h and photos 22–24, 47, 58, 59, 63).23 This device is not linked to a certain type or size of wheel:24 in the Gangetic plains it is connected to wheels with paired cross-bars, whereas in Rajasthan it is associated with radially spoked wheels.

45On some carts, however, there is only one axle, sometimes reinforced inside by a metal tube, which crosses all the way under the cart and both wheels run on it; the body rests directly on the axle, supported by blocks of wood. Outside each wheel there is a pair of V-shaped struts or a plain horizontal or curved plank fastened to the body.

46Regarding the body of the cart, the platform rests on the supports on either side of each wheel. In many farm carts in Uttar Pradesh, Panjab or Rajasthan, it is a flat wooden framework covered with planks (photos 17, 19–20, 27–29) with a convex or concave surface (photos 18, 21–26, 59, 63). In more elaborate carts such as the chakṛā of Bihar, described infra (figs. XXII-XXIII), the body is a long, strongly built triangle which is arched so that its convex side is uppermost.

47To simplify matters, let’s say broadly that, in the northern plains and in the northwest of India, there are types of carriages which are not found in the rest of the peninsula, and that, despite their regional differences (radially spoked wheels, wheels with paired cross-bars), there is, nonetheless, a family likeness between them.

48How can this distribution of vehicles be explained?

49Regarding the morphology of the wheel, what are the reasons for the survival of solid wheels in scattered pockets across the country? Why are radially spoked wheels found in Kashmir and in the valley of Brahmaputra when, in the large northern plains, wheels with paired cross-bars are widespread? Why are radially spoked wheels built all over the peninsula when physically the regions differ considerably? Concerning the body and axle of the carts, why are carriages provided with wheel supports found only in the north of the Vindhyas?

50It is not easy to answer these questions. To search for an explanation in the local environment by considering the influence of the type of timber used in building the vehicles, the qualities of the various draught animals, or the conditions of transport (relief, climate, vegetation) does not yield any significant result.25

51The best approach to the problem, therefore, is to examine the past, by collecting archaeological data and literary documents, submit them for critical analysis and thus establish the relation between the various types of carriages from antiquity to the present day.