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The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s4: Effect of Physical Features upon History

The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s4

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English

Effect of Physical Features upon History

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The history of a country is in large measure influenced by its geography. In the Deccan physical features—the mountains, forests, and river systems—made themselves pre-eminently felt. The hills and jungles on the north fenced the entire region off from the Indo-Gangetic plain and tended to constitute it a world by itself with distinct social, ethnic, and cultural traits, as evidenced by the Dharmasūtra of Bodhāyana, the Nāṭyaśāstra of Bharata, and the Harṣacharita of Bāṇa.¹ But they could not render it completely impervious to northern influence. Neither the paucity of highways nor the perils of the journey prevented peaceful monks and pious missionaries from braving the dangers of the wild and carrying their message of peace and righteous conduct to the Deccan for the moral and spiritual uplift of the people. Nor did these obstacles stand in the way of caravan leaders and merchants coming to the south in quest of wealth. Waves of invasion, too, at times swept through forests and mountains, along the glens and passes that pierced the rampart of hills overlooking the Godāvarī and its affluents.

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¹ Bodh. Dh. S. i, 1, 17-19; 21, 29-31; Nāṭya S. vi, 25; xxiii, 102; H.C., Introductory Verse, 7. Cf. Daṇḍin, Kāvyādarśa, i, 34 and 40 ff.

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The Sahyādris, which rise out of the west coast in sheer lofty scarps, and throw off numerous spurs towards the centre of the plateau, the rivers that lash themselves to fury during the monsoons, the impenetrable forests that clothe many of the mountains, and cover the face of many a river valley at various points, were calculated to cleave the country into countless minute political fragments whose kaleidoscopic changes and combinations it was difficult to check. Walls of rock that crown many of the hill-tops were easily turned into impregnable fortresses hurling defiance at any authority attempting to establish control over the three seas (ti-samuda, ambudhitraya) that enclosed the peninsula. But the vast tableland with its mineral and agricultural wealth, augmented by a thriving commerce through the ports lining the eastern and western seaboards, did at times become seats of empires rivalling in power and splendour the famous monarchies in the Indo-Gangetic plain. Time and again waves of invasion from the north beat in vain against the bastions of rock and the impenetrable forest barriers guarding the approaches to the valleys of the Narmadā and the Godāvarī. The Raichūr doāb in the south, the Eḍedorenāḍ of ancient inscriptions,² and the ‘two-rivers district’ (sindhuyugmāntara-deśa) in the south-east, unprotected by a continuous and unbroken screen of hills and forests, were more vulnerable to attack than parts of the north, and were often drenched in blood when contending forces on either side of the Tuṅgabhadrā and the Kṛṣṇā were locked in deadly combat. But strongholds like Koppal, Ānegundi, Mudgal, Raichūr, Devarakoṇḍa, and Nalgonda stood as ramparts against a sudden rush of invasion. Secure in his ring of rock the *Dakshiṇāpathapati*, ‘sovereign of the Deccan’ took his rank among the greatest rulers of the world, and adorned the country with magnificent temples, in the beginning hewn out in rock and bedecked with splendid paintings and sculpture which to this day are the pride of the land.

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² Ep. Ind., xii, 295.

Cites (6)