The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.25

v1.c15.25

On leaving Tuticorin we travel northward over the Carnatic plain. It is a barren looking country and dry, though at certain seasons there are plentiful rains, and crops enough are produced to maintain a dense population. Far down on the western horizon are the mountains of the Malabar coast, for in this extremity of India the Western and Eastern Ghāts have come together and there is no plateau between them. The mountains rise from the western sea and from the eastern plain into a ridge along the west coast, with summits about as high as the summits of Ceylon, that is to say some eight thousand feet. The westward slopes of these mountains, usually known as the Cardamon hills, belong to the little native states of Travancore and Cochin.