The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.23

v1.c15.23

The interior of the Indian peninsula is for the most part a low plateau, known as the Deccan, whose western edge is a steep brink overlooking the Malabar coast. From the top of this brink, called the Western Ghāts, the surface of the plateau falls gently eastward to a lower brink, which bears the name of Eastern Ghāts. Between the Eastern Ghāts and the Coromandel coast there is a belt of lowland, the Carnatic. Thus India presents a lofty front to the ship approaching from the west, but a featureless plain along the Bay of Bengal, where the trees of the coastline appear to rise out of a water horizon when seen from a short distance seaward.