A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c7.16

c7.16

The Eastern Ghats possess little of the magnificence gained by the regular structure but irregular outlines of the ghats of the west. They are scattered, broken, and of much lower altitude, though geologically they seem to be distinctly older than the Western Ghats. Beginning in Orissa, they pass into Madras state keeping parallel to the coast, generally at a distance of fifty miles as far south as latitude 16°N. They then recede from the coast, follow a north to south course till the latitude of Madras where they strike south-westwards to form the southern edge of the Deccan plateau in its wider sense and meet the Western Ghats in the Nilgiris. Because of their lower elevation and their broken character, the Eastern Ghats have not been as great an obstacle to intercourse between the plateau and the coastal plain as the Western Ghats; and the fact that the major rivers rise on the crest of the Western Ghats and course down all the way to the Bay of Bengal, cutting across the Eastern Ghats, has also helped freedom of movement.