(I had to make a comprehensive parts list detailing out the size and length of every piece of lumber required to build the chariot. This was not only needed to order the lumber, it was also how I was able to estimate the costs for every part and figure out quite closely how much the entire cart would cost to build.)
“At the present moment, India may be compared to the lame man and the Western countries to the blind man. For the past two thousand years India has been subjugated by the rule of foreigners, and the legs of progress have been broken. In the Western countries the eyes of the people have become blind due to the dazzling glitter of material opulence. The blind man of the Western countries and the lame man of India should combine together in this Krsna consciousness movement. Then the lame man of India can walk with the help of the Westerner, and the blind Westerner can see with the help of the lame man. In short, the material advancement of the Western countries and the spiritual assets of India should combine for the elevation of all human society.”- Srimad Bhagavat Purana Canto 4“The Creation of the Fourth Order”, Chapter 25, “The Descriptions of the Characteristics of King Puranjana”, Text13.
While N.Y. had given me a very strong lesson in how dangerous the Rath cart canopy could be, what I had learned from my many conversations with Jayananda prabhu was that the axle and wheels were the most vulnerable part of a Rath cart. This was particularly true for the front axle, which has many moving parts and is essential in steering the huge vessel through the streets and around corners. The reinforced huge 8ft steel wheels in N.Y. proved that when properly designed they were far more functional than the huge solid wooden wheels that were first used in the original Ratha-yatra carts that had been built. Jayananda prabhu even managed to get some very strong multi-ply conveyor belt rubber to affix to the circumference of the wheel with flat head machine screws and heavy duty industrial contact cement. It worked very well so I planned to model the wheels for the Calcutta chariot from what had worked so nicely in N.Y.
Using the same line of thinking I went out and purchased a heavy-duty truck axle from a junkyard that was then cut and re-welded together to make a 12ft. front axle wheelbase. The rear axle was simply a 12 foot long 3” piece of solid round steel that rested on a huge 6x8 beam making it virtually indestructible.
If one looks at the historic photo of Jayananda prabhu on the cover of the 1976 Back to Godhead Magazine you can see him dancing on the ground right in front of the bright yellow helm bumper on Lord Jagannatha’s huge chariot. If you look closely you will see him holding on to two long parallel pipes hooked up to the steering transom. This arrangement allowed Jayananda prabhu to turn the cart by throwing his weight against the pipes in the direction he wanted to steer the cart. It is actually easier to see the steering bars and how they work in the photos from Episode 3 (3-2 1977-N.Y._WheelGems.png) where I can be seen holding them firmly and leaning way to the side to turn the wheels. It was a simple system, and it worked well in N.Y. so I stuck with that plan for piloting the new chariot through the labyrinth of congested downtown streets in Calcutta.
Something I had already learned while heading temple projects in Mayapur was that the lumberyards in Bengal didn’t have stacks of precut wood lying around that one could just walk in and purchase. When I was growing up, wood was actually cut to 2x4”, 4x4” or 4x12” etc. Over the years since then those dimensions shrunk down to nominal sizes which meant that a product called a 2X4 really measured only 1.5”x3.5”! There appeared to be no National Lumber Standards regulating the dimensions for wood products in India. What this meant was when it was time for me to go to the local Katha Ḍukan (Wood Store ie: Lumberyard) I had to have a complete list of the exact measurements for every piece of timber that I wanted. Then, after my order was paid for, a big log would be removed from a pile and get cut on a huge band saw into the exact sizes I requested. This was all fine as long as I remembered that if I requested a 2x4x10 I would actually get a piece of wood that was 2” wide, 4” tall and 10feet long!
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