Kisaan Bullock Cart, 1982

This Kisaan bullock cart was built in 1982 by the Institute of Management in Bangalore, India.

This two-wheeled horse-cart has a green-painted wide steel and wood frame with yellow-painted wooden wheels with rubber rims and a wide yoke which is drawn by two animals. The cart comes with brakes, and shock-absorbing spring suspensions and roller bearings in the wheel hubs for smoother movement.

This improved Bullock cart is a research prototype for a modernized animal-drawn vehicle, designed by the Indian Institute of Management.

In India animal drawn and motorized vehicles are operated alongside each other as both commercial and personal transport. By the 1980s, for every 500,000 long-distance motor trucks seen on the country’s roads, there were also around 35 animal-driven carts operating on the shorter and rougher roads found between farms, fields, and markets.

Bullock carts (sometimes called Bullock carriages when they are transporting people) is one of the oldest types of carts in history, with its generally simple design being traced back 3000 years. Mostly unchanged across this history, bullock carts are cheap, tough, effective and easy to build and repair.

In modern history, many new designs of bullock carts have been developed to include new features. This example is a result of experimentation and trials in villages in and around the Bangalore and Mandya Districts, Karntaka. Its key improvements are its wider and sturdier yoke, its shock-absorbing springs and the inclusion of roller bearings in the wheel hub. These improvements ease the load on the driver and the animals.