Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.101

c14.101

yoke, this would be very reasonable. Our confidence in it is increased when we calculate the other dimensions on this value, and arrive at an axle-length of about 4 feet 6 inches, and a yoke-width of about 3 feet 6 inches. It is true that the Egyptian chariot has a wide wheel-base of 6 feet 5 inches, but the European Iron Age vehicles had what is today the ‘standard’ gauge of carts in Britain, 4 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 8 inches, and one known in the Mediterranean at least in the first millennium B.C. Yoke-widths (one Egyptian, two European, Iron Age) vary between 2 feet 8½ inches and 3 feet 10½ inches, so one feels strongly that the *Śulba Sūtra* measurements are in the correct ratio, and that they must be interpreted on the assumption that, for this purpose at least, the angula has a value of about ½ inch, and that the Aryan chariot had the same proportions as those known from material evidence.