Contribution to the history of the wheeled vehicle in india

This book is a contribution to the history of the wheeled vehicle in India. In the first part we exam-ine the present carriages, their types and their distri-bution; then, in the light of these clearly discernible facts, we intend to interpret the sources concerning, on the one hand, the wheeled vehicles from Proto-history to the Mughal period, and on the other hand, the changes introduced by the transport revolution of the middle of the 19th century.

It shows that, prior to the British period, the northern plains of India were favoured with a variety of vehicles for travelling and for goods traffic, many of them with a rudimentary form of suspension, while in the Deccan, most of the country carts were heavy, ill-constructed and not fit for distant journeys.

The reason why the people of Hindusthan showed much greater ingenuity than those of the Deccan concerning the construction of carts is perhaps due to the fact that, over the centuries, greater attention was given there to roads and their maintenance than on the peninsula: at least since Asoka, the sovereigns of the Gangetic Plain were interested in the question of roads, and particularly in the good condition of the Grand Trunk Road and the axes leading to the Gulf of Cambay.

About the Author

Jean DELOCHE, a senior member of the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient and the French Institute of Pondicherry, has devoted his academic career to the study of Indian History. Among the numerous books and articles written by him, can be mentioned: Origins of the Urban Development of Pondicherry according to Seventeenth-Century Dutch Plans, 2004, Senji (Gingi) A Fortified City in the Tamil Country, 2005, Studies on Fortification in India, 2007, Adventures of Jean-Baptiste Chevalier in Eastern India, 2008, Four Forts of the Deccan, 2009, Pierre Sonnerat, Nouveau Voyage aux Indes Orientales (1786-1813), 2010, A Study in Nayaka-Period Social Life: Tiruppudaimarudur Paintings and Carvings, 2011, Ancient Fortifications of the Tamil Country as Recorded in Eighteenth-Century French Plans, 2013.