The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.82

v1.c15.82

The wide Deccan Plateau is in most parts of no great fertility. Over large areas it is fitted rather for the pasture of horses and cattle than for the plough. Agriculture is best in the river valleys. But there is one large district lying on the plateau top east of Bombay, and on the hill tops north and south of the Narbadā valley which is of a most singular fertility. The usually granitic and schistose rocks of the plateau have here been overlaid by great sheets of basaltic lava. Detached portions of these lava beds form the table tops of most of the kopje-like hills. The lava disintegrates into a tenacious black soil, which does not fall into dust during the dry season, but cracks into great blocks which remain moist. As the dry season advances these blocks shrink, and the cracks grow broader, so that finally it is dangerous for a horse to gallop over the plain, lest his hoof should be caught in one of these fissures.