Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c46.2.4

c46.2.4

Between the mountains and the next obstacle, the ranges of Central India, lie the vast alluvial plain of the Ganges and its tributaries and the open plains of the Five Rivers. The Central Belt, of considerable width in both hill and forest, though of insignificant height in comparison with the Himalaya, is yet sufficiently difficult to have proved an effective obstacle in the infancy of means of communication and of protective government. It also affords shelter to a considerable population of the wilder tribes, of old the guardians of the routes through their territory. As in the case of the Himālaya, however, the flank can be turned on both east and west, as the hills do not reach either coast, and the narrow strips intervening between the ranges and the sea consist of fertile and low-lying country, presenting little or no difficulty of passage on the East, at all events, to the great southern plains and the Dekkan plateau. These prominent natural features have now to be coordinated with the ethnology of India, so far as our knowledge of the latter extends.