As pointed out in the previous blog, rituals can preserve ancient practices. It can preserve ancient technology too.
One example is the Torah which is read from a scroll every week in every synagogue. Scrolls have survived in active use so we know how they were wrapped, stored and how small pointers were used to preserve the surface. We also know how accuracy was maintained because we still have religious people who carry on the tradition of writing the Torah.
Another
is the Juggernaut. The word has entered our language as an unstoppable
force. The actual object entered our country courtesy of the Hare
Krishna parades. What is interesting to me about the juggernaut is
that the axles are fixed. They do not turn. The same juggernauts are
used in Kyoto parades with Japanese structures on top.
A four
wheeled vehicle with two axles that are fixed is certainly older than
one with a front rotatable axle. So what period is the juggernaut
preserving? Once the rotatable front axle was developed it must have
moved quickly across cultures. I can only guess that the front
rotatable axle dates back less than 2000 years. That is strictly a
guess.
The following video of a Hare Krishna parade has the juggernaut in the last few images. In Kyoto I have watched juggernauts turn corners by having a series of wooden planks put, one after the other, under the outside wheels, which makes it go further and consequently turn.