Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c20.61
Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c20.61
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c20.61
In Malabar the natives make use of no wheel carriages. All the labour of conveyance is performed by bullocks and men. This is the case also in Persia and among the Afghans.²⁵ What causes could have prevented these nations from adopting one of the most useful arts? They must have been acquainted with its advantages by their neighhours, who carry on their inland commerce on carts; and chariots seem to have been part of the warlike machinery of rude people. The nature of the country, and the rice cultivation of Malabar, are unfavourable to carriages; but these obstacles could not operate in every situation, and could not be very difficult to overcome.