The Deccan Plateau is a vast plateau in India, encompassing most of Central and Southern India. A map of South India, its rivers, regions and water bodies. ...

It comprises the whole of peninsular India south of the Vindhya range and has an elevation which ranges from 1,500 to 2,500 feet (450 to 750 m). It is bounded in the west by the Western Ghats and in the east by the Eastern Ghats. These two formations form one of the vertex of a triangle which encompasses the plateau with the Vindhya range forming the third side. This region is one of the most stable land masses of the world. The Vindhya Range is a range of hills in central India, which geographically separates The Indian subcontinent into northern India and Southern India. ... Enlarge this map of South India to see details about Western Ghats Nelliampathi mountains, Kerala A view from Ponmudi The Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountains (as they are known in the state of Maharashtra) run along the western edge of Indias Deccan Plateau, and separate the plateau from a... The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains, eroded and cut through by the four major rivers of southern India, the Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Kaveri. ...

Origin of Name

The name Deccan is anglicised form of the Prakrit dakkhin, itself derived from the Sanskrit dakṣiṇa, meaning south. Prakrit (Sanskrit prakrta: natural, usual) refers to the broad family of the Indic languages and dialects spoken in ancient India. ... Sanskrit ( संस्कृतम्) is an Indo-European classical language of India and a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. ...

Ancient Dakshinapatha gave its name to modern Deccan or Dekkan. Ancient Buddhist and Brahmanical texts reveal that expression Dakshinpatha, in general was used as a name both for the southern high road as also for the region lying south of Majjhimdesa or Mid India. ...

In Mahabharata, Dakshinapatha is placed beyond Avanti and Vindhyas and to south of the kingdom of Vidarbhas and southern Kosalas, the latter being located on the banks of Wardha and Mahanadi The Mahabharata (Devanagari: महाभारत, phonetically Mahābhārata - see note), sometimes just called Bharata, is one of the two major ancient Sanskrit epics of India, the other being the Ramayana. ... The Vindhya Range is a range of hills in central India, which geographically separates The Indian subcontinent into northern India and Southern India. ... Vidarbha is the north-eastern region of Maharashtra state, now forming two divisions (Nagpur and Amravati). ... Kosala was an ancient Indian kingdom, corresponding roughly in area with the region of Oudh. ... Wardha is a district in Maharashtra, India. ... The Mahanadi River is a river of eastern India. ...

Geography

It lies south of the Indo-Gangetic plain. It is bounded by the Western Ghats in the west, the Eastern Ghats to the east, the Nilgiris in the south and the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in the north. The plateau elevation is about 500 m on average. It is composed of black volcanic basalt soil. The chief crop is cotton, however sugarcane, rice and other crops also common. Several Indian states cover parts of the Deccan: Maharashtra covers most of the northern plateau, and Chhattisgarh the northeast corner. Andhra Pradesh covers the east-central portion of the Deccan, and Karnataka the west-central and most of the southern portion of the plateau, with the southernmost portion in Tamil Nadu. The largest city in the Deccan is Bangalore, southern India. Other major cities include Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, and Nagpur, Pune, and Sholapur in Maharashtra. The Indo-Gangetic Plain is a rich, fertile and ancient land encompassing most of northern and eastern India, the most populous parts of Pakistan, and virtually all of Bangladesh. ... Enlarge this map of South India to see details about Western Ghats Nelliampathi mountains, Kerala A view from Ponmudi The Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountains (as they are known in the state of Maharashtra) run along the western edge of Indias Deccan Plateau, and separate the plateau from a... The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains, eroded and cut through by the four major rivers of southern India, the Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Kaveri. ... Map of The Nilgiris district The Nilgiris or Blue Mountains are a range of mountains and a district in the south-Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. ... The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. ... The Vindhya Range is a range of hills in central India, which geographically separates The Indian subcontinent into northern India and Southern India. ... The metre (Commonwealth English) or meter (American English) (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ... Basalt Basalt is an extrusive igneous rock, sometimes porphyritic, and is often both fine-grained and dense. ... Cotton From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. ... Species Saccharum arundinaceum Saccharum bengalense Saccharum edule Saccharum officinarum Saccharum procerum Saccharum ravennae Saccharum robustum Saccharum sinense Saccharum spontaneum Sugar cane Saccharum officinarum at Kew Gardens, London Sugarcane or Sugar cane (Saccharum) is a genus of between 6–37 species (depending on taxonomic interpretation) of tall grasses (family Poaceae, tribe... Species Oryza glaberrima Oryza sativa Rice refers to two species (Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima) of grass, native to tropical and subtropical southeastern Asia and to Africa. ... Maharashtra (महाराष्ट्र in Devanagari) is Indias third largest state in terms of area and second largest in terms of population after Uttar Pradesh. ... Chhattisgarh (छत्तीसगढ़), a state in central India, formed when the sixteen southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained statehood on November 1, 2000. ... Andhra Pradesh (ఆంధ్ర ప్రదేశ్ in Telugu) (Ä€ndhra Prādesh), is a state in south-eastern India and is part of the linguistic-cultural region of South India. ... Karnataka or Karnātakā (ಕನಾ೯ಟಕ in Kannada) is one of the four southern states of India. ... Tamil Nadu (தமிழ் நாடு, Land of the Tamils) is a state at the southern tip of India. ... Bangalore (ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು in Kannada) is the capital and largest city of the state of Karnataka in India. ... Hyderabad may refer to various places: Hyderabad, India, Hyderabad state, the pre-1956 Indian state Hyderabad, Pakistan, for the city in Sindh, Pakistan This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... Nāgpur City name is derived from River Nag which flows through the city. ... Pune (पुणे in Marathi), formerly known as Punavadi and Poona (पूना by British), is located in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. ... Solapur is a district in Maharashtra, India. ...

The Godavari River and its tributaries, including the Indravati, drain most of the northern portion of the plateau, rising in the Western Ghats and draining east towards the Bay of Bengal. The Tungabhadra, Krishna River and its tributaries, including the Bhima River, which also run from west to east, drain the central portion of the plateau. The southernmost portion of the plateau is drained by the Kaveri River, which rises in the Western Ghats of Karnataka and bends south to break through the Nilgiri hills into Tamil Nadu, emptying into the Bay of Bengal. The Godavari River, adjacent to the town of Kovvur The Godavari River is a major waterway in India, next to the Ganges and Indus rivers. ... The Indravati River is a tributary of the Godavari River, located in central India. ... A map showing the location of the Bay of Bengal. ... The Krishna River is one of the longest rivers of India (about 1300 km in length). ... The Bhima River is a river in western India. ... The Cauvery River (also spelled Kaveri or Kavery) is one of the great rivers of India and is considered sacred by the Hindus. ... A map showing the location of the Bay of Bengal. ...

The vast volcanic basalt beds of the Deccan were laid down in the massive Deccan Traps eruption, which occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Some paleontologists speculate that this eruption may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. During a period lasting many hundreds of years there was a lot of volcanic activity in the region. The molten lava that erupted out of the volcanoes solidified into a hard rocky layer. Layer after layer was formed by the volcanic activity that lasted many hundreds of years, and when the volcanoes became extinct, they left a region of highlands with typically vast stretches of flat areas on top like a table. Hence it is also known as Table Top. This article is about volcanoes in geology. ... The Deccan Traps is a large igneous province located in west-central India and is one of the largest volcanic features on Earth. ... The Cretaceous period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic period, about 146 million years ago (Ma), to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary period (65. ... A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... Orders & Suborders Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Theropoda Ornithischia Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that ranged in form from reptile-like to bird-like. ...

Typically the Deccan Plateau is made up of basalt. This is an extrusive igneous rock. Also in certain sections of the region, we can find granite, which is an intrusive igneous rock. The difference between these two rock types are basalt rock forms on eruption of lava, that is, outside a volcano, while granite forms inside a volcano, that is, when the volcano becomes extinct the lava solidifies inside the volcano itself.

The Deccan is rich in minerals. Primary mineral ores found in this region are mica and iron ore in the Chhota Nagpur region, and diamonds, gold and other metals in the Golconda region. rock with mica Mica sheet mica flakes The mica group of minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Atomic mass 55. ... The Chota Nagpur Plateau (also Chhota Nagpur) is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Orissa, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh. ... A scattering of round-brilliant cut diamonds shows off the many reflecting facets. ... It has been suggested that Gold bar be merged into this article or section. ... Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily forms ions (cations) and has metallic bonds, and metals are sometimes described as a lattice of positive ions (cations) in a cloud of electrons. ... Golconda is a ruined city and fortress 11 km west of the city of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh state, India. ...

People

The Deccan is home to many languages and peoples. Bhil and Gond peoples live in the hills along the northern and northeastern edges of the plateau, and speak various languages that belong to both the Indo-European and Dravidian families of languages. Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language, is the main language of the north-western portion of the Deccan plateau. Urdu, Telugu, and Kannada, are the predominant languages of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka respectively, they occupy the plateau. Tamil is the main language of the country to the south of the plateau, and Malayalam that of the hills and coast to the south-west. Moreover, the city of Hyderabad is an important centre of Urdu language in the Deccan; its surrounding areas also host a notable population of Urdu speakers. Bhils are a tribal people of central India. ... Gondi refers to a people and their language in Central India. ... The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects, including most of the major language families of Europe, as well as many languages of Southwest and South Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 26 languages that are mainly spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, and eastern and central India. ... Marathi (मराठी ) is one of the 22 official languages spoken in India, and has a long literary history purportedly dating back to the 8th century A.D. The first Marathi document having been discovered in the state now known as Karnataka. ... The Indo-Aryan languages form a subgroup of the Indo-Iranian languages, thus belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. ... Urdu () is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family which developed under Persian, Turkish, and Arabic influence in the South Asia during the time of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1200-1800). ... Telugu (తెలుగు) belongs to the Dravidian language family and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Andhra Pradesh (ఆంధ్ర ప్రదేశ్ in Telugu) (Ä€ndhra Prādesh), is a state in south-eastern India and is part of the linguistic-cultural region of South India. ... Karnataka or Karnātakā (ಕನಾ೯ಟಕ in Kannada) is one of the four southern states of India. ... Tamil (தமிழ் ) is a classical language and one of the major languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. ... Malayalam (മലയാളം) is the major language of the state of Kerala, in southern India. ... Hyderabad or Haydarābād (Telugu: హైదరాబాదు Urdu: حیدر آباد ) is the capital city of Andhra Pradesh; with 43 lakh or 4. ... Urdu () is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family which developed under Persian, Turkish, and Arabic influence in the South Asia during the time of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1200-1800). ...

See also

• South India, which includes Deccan.

A map of South India, its rivers, regions and water bodies. ...

References

• Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p. 498 (scanned image at SriPedia Initiative): Sanskrit dakṣiṇa meaning `right', `southern'.