Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.99

c14.99

The dimensions of certain parts of the chariot are given, in a rather late text, the Śulba Sūtra, in terms of anguli, or ‘finger’s-breadths’. The lengths given are for the pole, the axle, and the yoke, and if these are calculated on the assumption that 16 anguli equalled 1 foot (the value usually assumed for the angula) it produces a pole nearly 12 feet long, an axle of some 6 feet 6 inches, and a yoke of 5 feet 4 inches, all of which seem strangely large. Now it is possible to estimate certain dimensions of ancient West Asiatic chariots fairly accurately from a large number of representations, and the pole length, constantly seen in profile, is always somewhere between 6 feet and 7 feet 6 inches long. This agrees with the extant Egyptian chariots (6 feet) and those of Iron Age Europe (6 feet 6 inches to 7 feet). If we adopt a value for the *angula* of ½ inch, we obtain a pole length of about 7 feet 10 inches, and since a word (*praüga*) exists which suggests that the Aryan pole had a significant projection forward of the