A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c7.22

c7.22

The Narmada and Tapti in the north are the two remarkable exceptions to the generally eastward drainage of the peninsula; they flow westwards in comparatively deep and narrow valleys into the rapidly shallowing Gulf of Cambay. The Western Ghats form the water-parting between the easterly and westerly drainage of the plateau; the crest line of the water-parting is at no great distance from the west coast, but the main rivers of the peninsula which have their sources in these heavily forested ghats course right across the peninsula and drain into the Bay of Bengal. This is thought to be the relic of a relatively ancient geographical feature, a view which finds support in the sluggish nature of the rivers which flow along fairly broad and flat-bottomed valleys across a wide and nearly level or gently undulating tract of country in striking contrast to the short swift-flowing rapids that drain the western face of the ghats into the Arabian Sea. The steep-sided valleys of the streams and their tendency to deepen and reach backward at their sources seem to testify to a yet unadjusted gradient.