Position and shape.
India, as thus defined, is the middle of the three irregularly shaped
peninsulas which jut out southwards from the mainland of Asia, thus
corresponding roughly to the peninsula of Italy in the map of Europe.
Its form is that of a great triangle, with its base resting upon the
Himalayan range and its apex running far into the ocean. The chief part
of its western side is washed by the Arabian Sea, and the chief part of
its eastern side by the Bay of Bengal. It extends from the 8th to the
37th degree of north latitude, that is to say, from the hottest regions
of the equator to far within the temperate zone. The capital, Calcutta,
lies in 88° E., so that when the sun sets at six o'clock there, it is
just past mid-day in England and early morning in New York. The length
of India from north to south, and its greatest breadth from east to
west, are both about 1900 m.; but the triangle tapers with a pear-shaped
curve to a point at Cape Comorin, its southern extremity. To this
compact dominion the British have added Burma, the strip of country on
the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal. But on the other hand the
adjacent island of Ceylon has been administratively severed and placed
under the Colonial Office. Two groups of islands in the Bay of Bengal,
the Andamans and the Nicobars; one group in the Arabian Sea, the
Laccadives; and the outlying station of Aden at the mouth of the Red
Sea, with Perim, and protectorates over the island of Sokotra, along the
southern coast of Arabia and in the Persian Gulf, are all politically
included within the Indian empire; while on the coast of the peninsula
itself, Portuguese and French settlements break at intervals the
continuous line of British territory.
Boundaries.
India is shut off from the rest of Asia on the north by a vast
mountainous region, known in the aggregate as the Himalayas, amid
which lie the independent states of Nepal and Bhutan, with the great
table-land of Tibet behind. The native principality of Kashmir
occupies the north-western angle of India. At this north-western angle
(in 35° N., 74° E.) the mountains curve southwards, and India is
separated by the well-marked ranges of the Safed Koh and Suliman from
Afghanistan; and by a southern continuation of lower hills from
Baluchistan. Still farther southwards, India is bounded along the W.
and S.W. by the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Turning northwards from
the southern extremity at Cape Comorin (8° 4´ 20´´ N., 77° 35´ 35´´
E.), the long sea-line of the Bay of Bengal forms the main part of its
eastern boundary. But on the north-east, as on the north-west, India
has again a land frontier. The Himalayan ranges at the north-eastern
angle (in about 28° N., 97° E.) throw off spurs and chains to the
south-east, which separate Eastern Bengal from Assam and Burma.
Stretching south-eastwards from the delta of the Irrawaddy, a confused
succession of little explored ranges separates the Burmese division of
Tenasserim from the native kingdom of Siam. The boundary line runs
down to Point Victoria at the extremity of Tenasserim (9° 59´ N., 98°
32´ E.), following in a somewhat rough manner the watershed between
the rivers of the British territory on the west and of Siam on the
east.
Three regions.
The empire included within these boundaries is rich in varieties of
scenery and climate, from the highest mountains in the world to vast
river deltas raised only a few inches above the level of the sea. It
practically forms a continent rather than a country. But if we could
look down on the whole from a balloon, we should find that India
(apart from Burma, for which see the separate article) consists of
three separate and well-defined tracts.
Himalayas.
The first of the three regions is the Himalaya (q.v.) mountains and
their offshoots to the southward, comprising a system of stupendous
ranges, the loftiest in the world. They are the _Emodus_ of Ptolemy
(among other names), and extend in the shape of a scimitar, with its
edge facing southwards, for a distance of 1500 m. along the northern
frontier of India. At the north-eastern angle of that frontier, the
Dihang river, the connecting link between the Tsanpo of Tibet and the
Brahmaputra of Assam, bursts through the main axis of the range. At
the opposite or north-western angle, the Indus in like manner pierces
the Himalayas, and turns southwards on its course through the Punjab.
This wild region is in many parts impenetrable to man, and nowhere
yields a passage for a modern army. Ancient and well-known trade
routes exist, by means of which merchandise from the Punjab finds its
way over heights of 18,000 ft. into Eastern Turkestan and Tibet. The
Muztagh (Snowy Mountain), the Karakoram (Black Mountain), and the
Changchenmo are the most famous of these passes.
The Himalayas not only form a double wall along the north of India,
but at both their eastern and western extremities send out ranges to
the south, which protect its north-eastern and north-western
frontiers. On the north-east, those offshoots, under the name of the
Naga and Patkoi mountains, &c., form a barrier between the civilized
districts of Assam and the wild tribes of Upper Burma. On the opposite
or north-western frontier of India, the mountainous offshoots run down
the entire length of the British boundaries from the Himalayas to the
sea. As they proceed southwards, their best marked ranges are in turn
known as the Safed Koh, the Suliman and the Hala mountains. These
massive barriers have peaks of great height, culminating in the
Takht-i-Suliman or Throne of Solomon, 11,317 ft. above the level of
the sea. But the mountain wall is pierced at the corner where it
strikes southwards from the Himalayas by an opening through which the
Kabul river flows into India. An adjacent opening, the Khyber Pass,
the Kurram Pass to the south of it, the Gomal Pass near Dera Ismail
Khan, the Tochi Pass between the two last-named, and the famous Bolan
Pass still farther south, furnish the gateways between India and
Afghanistan. The Hala, Brahui and Pab mountains, forming the southern
hilly offshoots between India and Baluchistan, have a much less
elevation.
River plains.
The wide plains watered by the Himalayan rivers form the second of the
three regions into which we have divided India. They extend from the
Bay of Bengal on the east to the Afghan frontier and the Arabian Sea
on the west, and contain the richest and most densely crowded
provinces of the empire. One set of invaders after another has from
prehistoric times entered by the passes at their eastern and
north-western frontiers. They followed the courses of the rivers, and
pushed the earlier comers southwards before them towards the sea.
About 167 millions of people now live on and around these river
plains, in the provinces known as the lieutenant-governorship of
Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam, the United Provinces, the Punjab,
Sind, Rajputana and other native states.
River systems.
The vast level tract which thus covers northern India is watered by
three distinct river systems. One of these systems takes its rise in
the hollow trough beyond the Himalayas, and issues through their
western ranges upon the Punjab as the Sutlej and Indus. The second of
the three river systems also takes its rise beyond the double wall of
the Himalayas, not very far from the sources of the Indus and the
Sutlej. It turns, however, almost due east instead of west, enters
India at the eastern extremity of the Himalayas, and becomes the
Brahmaputra of Eastern Bengal and Assam. These rivers collect the
drainage of the northern slopes of the Himalayas, and convey it, by
long and tortuous although opposite routes, into India. Indeed, the
special feature of the Himalayas is that they send down the rainfall
from their northern as well as from their southern slopes to the
Indian plains. The third river system of northern India receives the
drainage of their southern slopes, and eventually unites into the
mighty stream of the Ganges. In this way the rainfall, alike from the
northern and southern slopes of the Himalayas, pours down into the
river plains of Bengal.
Northern table-land.
The third division of India comprises the three-sided table-land which
covers the southern half or more strictly peninsular portion of India.
This tract, known in ancient times as the Deccan (Dakshin), literally
"the right hand or south," comprises the Central Provinces and Berar,
the presidencies of Madras and Bombay, and the territories of
Hyderabad, Mysore and other feudatory states. It had in 1901 an
aggregate population of about 100 millions.
The northern side rests on confused ranges, running with a general
direction of east to west, and known in the aggregate as the Vindhya
mountains. The Vindhyas, however, are made up of several distinct hill
systems. Two sacred peaks guard the flanks in the extreme east and
west, with a succession of ranges stretching 800 m. between. At the
western extremity, Mount Abu, famous for its exquisite Jain temples,
rises, as a solitary outpost of the Aravalli hills 5650 ft. above the
Rajputana plain, like an island out of the sea. On the extreme east,
Mount Parasnath--like Mount Abu on the extreme west, sacred to Jain
rites--rises to 4400 ft. above the level of the Gangetic plains. The
various ranges of the Vindhyas, from 1500 to over 4000 ft. high, form,
as it were, the northern wall and buttresses which support the central
table-land. Though now pierced by road and railway, they stood in
former times as a barrier of mountain and jungle between northern and
southern India, and formed one of the main obstructions to welding the
whole into an empire. They consist of vast masses of forests, ridges
and peaks, broken by cultivated valleys and broad high-lying plains.
Ghats.
The other two sides of the elevated southern triangle are known as the
Eastern and Western Ghats. These start southwards from the eastern and
western extremities of the Vindhya system, and run along the eastern
and western coasts of India. The Eastern Ghats stretch in fragmentary
spurs and ranges down the Madras presidency, here and there receding
inland and leaving broad level tracts between their base and the
coast. The Western Ghats form the great sea-wall of the Bombay
presidency, with only a narrow strip between them and the shore. In
many parts they rise in magnificent precipices and headlands out of
the ocean, and truly look like colossal "passes or landing-stairs"
(_gháts_) from the sea. The Eastern Ghats have an average elevation of
1500 ft. The Western Ghats ascend more abruptly from the sea to an
average height of about 3000 ft. with peaks up to 4700, along the
Bombay coast, rising to 7000 and even 8760 in the upheaved angle which
they unite to form with the Eastern Ghats, towards their southern
extremity.
The inner triangular plateau thus enclosed lies from 1000 to 3000 ft.
above the level of the sea. But it is dotted with peaks and seamed
with ranges exceeding 4000 ft. in height. Its best known hills are the
Nilgiris, with the summer capital of Madras, Ootacamund, 7000 ft.
above the sea. The highest point is Dodabetta Peak (8760 ft.), at the
upheaved southern angle.
Eastern Ghats.
On the eastern side of India, the Ghats form a series of spurs and
buttresses for the elevated inner plateau, rather than a continuous
mountain wall. They are traversed by a number of broad and easy
passages from the Madras coast. Through these openings the rainfall of
the southern half of the inner plateau reaches the sea. The drainage
from the northern or Vindhyan edge of the three-sided table-land
falls into the Ganges. The Nerbudda and Tapti carry the rainfall of
the southern slopes of the Vindhyas and of the Satpura hills, in
almost parallel lines, into the Gulf of Cambay. But from Surat, in 21°
9´, to Cape Comorin, in 8° 4´, no large river succeeds in reaching the
western coast from the interior table-land. The Western Ghats form, in
fact, a lofty unbroken barrier between the waters of the central
plateau and the Indian Ocean. The drainage has therefore to make its
way across India to the eastwards, now turning sharply round
projecting ranges, now tumbling down ravines, or rushing along the
valleys, until the rain which the Bombay sea-breeze has dropped upon
the Western Ghats finally falls into the Bay of Bengal. In this way
the three great rivers of the Madras Presidency, viz., the Godavari,
the Kistna and the Cauvery, rise in the mountains overhanging the
western coast, and traverse the whole breadth of the central
table-land before they reach the sea on the eastern shores of India.
Of the three regions of India thus briefly surveyed, the first, or the
Himalayas, lies for the most part beyond the British frontier, but a
knowledge of it supplies the key to the ethnology and history of
India. The second region, or the great river plains in the north,
formed the theatre of the ancient race-movements which shaped the
civilization and the political destinies of the whole Indian
peninsula. The third region, or the triangular table-land in the
south, has a character quite distinct from either of the other two
divisions, and a population which is now working out a separate
development of its own. Broadly speaking, the Himalayas are peopled by
Mongoloid tribes; the great river plains of Hindustan are still the
home of the Aryan race; the triangular table-land has formed an arena
for a long struggle between that gifted race from the north and what
is known as the Dravidian stock in the south.
_Geology._
Geologically, as well as physically, India consists of three distinct
regions, the Himalayas, the Peninsula, and--between these two--the
Indo-Gangetic plain with its covering of alluvium and wind-blown
sands. The contrast between the Himalayas and the Peninsula is one of
fundamental importance. The former, from the Tertiary period even to
the present day, has been a region of compression; the latter, since
the Carboniferous period at least, has been a region of equilibrium or
of tension. In the former even the Pliocene beds are crumpled and
folded, overfolded and overthrust in the most violent fashion; in the
latter none but the oldest beds, certainly none so late as the
Permian, have been crumpled or crushed--occasionally they are bent and
frequently they are faulted, but the faults, though sometimes of
considerable magnitude, are simple dislocations, unaccompanied by any
serious disturbance of the strata. The greater part of the Himalayan
region lay beneath the sea from early Palaeozoic times to the Eocene
period, and the deposits are accordingly marine; the Peninsula, on the
other hand, has been land since the Permian period at least--there is,
indeed, no evidence that it was ever beneath the sea--only on its
margins are any marine deposits to be found. It should, however, be
mentioned that in the eastern part of the Himalayas some of the beds
resemble those of the Peninsula, and it appears that a part of the old
Indian continent has here been involved in the folds of the mountain
chain.
The geology of the Himalayas being described elsewhere (see
HIMALAYAS), the following account deals only with the Indo-Gangetic
plain and the Peninsula.
The _Indo-Gangetic Plain_ covers an area of about 300,000 sq. m., and
varies in width from 90 to nearly 300 m. It rises very gradually from
the sea at either end; the lowest point of the watershed between the
Punjab rivers and the Ganges is about 924 ft. above the sea. This
point, by a line measured down the valley, but not following the
winding of the river, is about 1050 m. from the mouth of the Ganges
and 850 m. from the mouth of the Indus, so that the average
inclination of the plain, from the central watershed to the sea, is
only about 1 ft. per mile. It is less near the sea, where for long
distances there is no fall at all. Near the watershed it is generally
more; but there is here no ridge of high ground between the Indus and
the Ganges, and a very trifling change of level would often turn the
upper waters of one river into the other. It is not unlikely that such
changes have in past time occurred; and if so an explanation is
afforded of the occurrence of allied forms of freshwater dolphins
(_Platanista_) and of many other animals in the two rivers and in the
Brahmaputra.
The alluvial deposits of the plain, as made known by the boring at
Calcutta, prove a gradual depression of the area in recent times.
There are peat and forest beds, which must have grown quietly at the
surface, alternating with deposits of gravel, sand and clay. The
thickness of the delta deposit is unknown; 481 ft. was proved at the
bore hole, but probably this represents only a small part of the
deposit. Outside the delta, in the Bay of Bengal, is a deep depression
known as the "swatch of no ground"; all around it the soundings are
only of 5 to 10 fathoms, but they very rapidly deepen to over 300
fathoms. Mr J. Ferguson has shown that the sediment is carried away
from this area by the set of the currents; probably then it has
remained free from sediment whilst the neighbouring sea bottom has
gradually been filled up. If so, the thickness of the alluvium is at
least 1800 ft., and may be much more. At Lucknow a boring was driven
through the Gangetic alluvium to a depth of 1336 ft. from the surface,
or nearly 1000 ft. below sea-level. Even at this depth there was no
indication of an approach to the base of the alluvial deposits.
[Illustration: Map of India (Northern Part)