Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/116

 CHAPTER III THE STKUGGLE BETWEEN CHKISTENDOM AND ISLAM FOE THE INDIAN SEAS 1509-1600 rFIHE Portuguese landing was fortunate both as to J- place and time. The India which Da Gama reached in 1498 was not the great empire of the Moghuls, but a narrow shore-strip shut out from the rest of the conti- nent by a mountain wall, and itself partitioned among petty rajas. The two ranges of the eastern and the west- ern Ghats which run down the opposite coasts of the peninsula, have from time immemorial determined its political geography. The eastern Ghats stretch in frag- mentary spurs and ridges along the Madras side, reced- ing far inland and leaving broad tracts between their base and the sea. This open region, everywhere avail- able for civilized settlement, became the seat of the ancient kingdoms of southern India. The western Ghats, on the other hand, form the sea-buttresses of the Bombay presidency, with a contracted space, some- times a mere palm-tree fringe, between them and the shore. At places they rise in magnificent cliffs and 74