The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.92

v1.c15.92

West of the Arāvalli hills is the great Indian desert, prolonged seaward by the salt and partly tidal marsh of the Rann of Cutch. In oases of this desert are some of the smaller Rājput capitals, notably Bīkaner. Beyond the desert flows the great Indus river through a land which is dry, except for the irrigated strips beside the river banks and in the delta of Sind below Hyderābād. South of Mount Abu streams descend from the end of the Arāvalli hills to the Gulf of Cambay through the fertile lowland of Ahmadābād, sunk like a land strait between the plateau of Kāthiāwār to the west and the ends of the Vindhya and Sātpurā ranges to the east. The Arāvallis are the last of the Central Indian hills towards the north-west. Outside the Arāvallis the Indus valley spreads in wide low-lying alluvial plains, like those of the Ganges, but dry.