The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s3.2

v1.c6.s3.2

The great central upland has an elevation of from 1,000 to 3,000 ft. above the level of the sea with depressions that coincide with the valleys of rivers. It has hills and spurs here and there rising to 2,500 ft., and even to 3,500 ft., and descends by a succession of terraces from the Western Ghāts towards the seaboard of the Presidency of Madras. The plateau is divided into large areas geologically and linguistically distinct. The Godāvarī and its affluent the Mañjrā cut off the trappean region in the north and the west, covered with luxuriant vegetation and largely peopled by Marāṭhās, from the granitic and calcareous country with bare rocks and a sandy soil where Telugus predominate. The south-western part of the plateau with its ‘Dharwarian Rocks’, marked off from Marāṭhwāra by a waving line drawn from Bidar to Kārwār, and from Teliṅgāna by another line running from Bidar to Adoni, constitutes a third area styled Kannaḍa, Karṇāṭa, or Karṇāṭaka where the prevailing language is Kanarese. The name of the region is sometimes derived from the Dravidian words *kār*, ‘black’, and *nāḍu*, ‘country’, that is, the black country, a term that aptly designates the black cotton soil, *kṛiṣṇabhūmikṣetra*, *vikhyāta-kṛiṣṇavarṇa* . . . *viṣaya*, which made this part of the Deccan famous for many ages. The river which watered the land was fittingly termed Kṛiṣṇa, ‘the black’, Kṛiṣṇavarṇā, ‘of black hue’, or Kṛiṣṇaveṇī, ‘with a braid of black hair’.