That was only the first commercial passenger train. There were at least three other instances before that when railways were used in IR.
The first of them was in 1836 in Chennai ( then Madras), called the Redhill railway. The route was used to supply stones from quarries to a canal for further transport. Initially the wagons were drawn by animals ( not mentioned which ones, but could be horses or bulls as they are more common than elephants in the Madras region). And there is an account of a passenger service too on this route, where the wagons were actually powered by sails ( like boats!). The first locomotive that ever ran in India ran on this route,...
more... and it was built in India too! You can check this IRFCA page for a lot of good information about this!
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