Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/39

 INTRODUCTION. 5

the north side, the Himalaya, descending by a series of magnificent terraces Basin of the with parallel or intersecting valleys, approaches the edge of an immense plain of sm-passing beauty and fertility, sl[)ing gently from west to east, and tra- versed near its centre by a majestic river. On ])oth sides, chiefly from the Himalaya, but partly also from the Vindhya range, it is joined by numerous tributaries, which so augment its volume that it becomes in a manner encum- bei'ed with its spoils, and unable to carry them along in one amdivided channel. Accordingly, in the lower part of its course, it throws off numerous branches, which form a kind of network across its delta. A little lower down it com- municates with the Brahmapootra, coming from the east, and carrying a volume of water little if at all inferior to its own. The difficulty of discharge is thus greatly increased, and can only be met by an additional number of outlet.s. In the dry season, these flow witliin their banks, and have the appearance of independent streams ; but when the waters rise, a sudden overflow takes place, and the whole country is covered for many miles around with one vast inunda- tion. A similar result is produced on the lower flats of the Indus; and one consequence is, that both rivers become far less available for navigation than might be supposed from the volumes of water which they carry. The channels becoming shallow and attenuated in proportion to their number, it is difficult to find any single one which large vessels can safely use.

The two great basins now described do not completely exhaust the whole central

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area included within the Himalaya and the Vindhya range; and therefore it is necessary to mention, that the ramifications of the range cover a considerable tract of great beauty and fertility, which i^elongs to what has been called Central India, and is drained by the independent basins of the Nerbudda and the Taptee, which carry its waters west to the Gulf of Cambay.

The Deccan, the other great division of India, is washed by the ocean on The oeccin. all sides but one, and is hence, though not with strict accuracy, usually described as a peninsula. It is in the form of an immense triangle, which rests on the Vindhya range as its base, and terminates in Cape Comorin as its vertex. Of its two sides, one running S.S.E. in an almost unbroken line, faces the Arabian Sea, the other, whose continuity is more broken, lies south-west, and faces the Bay of Bengal. Names so common as not to be imworthy of notice serve to distinguish the lower halves of the sides — that on the west being usually designated as the Malabar, and that on the east as the Coromandel coast.

The structm-e of the Deccan is very simple. Not far from the opposite extremities of the Vindhya range, whose greatest height is not supposed to exceed 3000 feet, two mountain chains proceed, and stretch southward in direc- tions nearly parallel to the coasts. That on the west, called the Western westem Ghauts, is continued to Cape Comorin. Its loftiest summits, which are situated between lat. 10' and 15°, rise to about 6000 feet. Towards the sea., from which it seldom recedes more than forty miles, it is very precipitous; towards the