i MANUAL OP THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. I. in great part, their rough and irregular conformation, until 



Genial ^^^1 merge in the undulating uplands of South- West Mysore and 



Description, the Wainad. The ridge of the Eastern Ghdts is divided from the 



Nilagiris at their north-east extremity opposite the Gajalhatti^ 



Pass by the Moyar River. 



The Western Ghdts, meanwhile, after almost touching the 

 coast line in North Malabar, trend to the south-east, becoming 

 more precipitous and broken in character as they proceed, until 

 at last they culminate at two lofty points, known as Nilagiri^ and 

 Miikartebetta^ Peaks, the latter the Teneriffe of Southern India. 

 Thence they divide into two branches running north and south, 

 called respectively the Nidumale or Himagdla,* and the 

 Kunda ranges. In couformation and physical aspect, they differ 

 greatly. The Nidumale^ range assumes a more and more undu- 

 lating character as it slopes away towards the north, until it reaches 

 the confines of the plateau overlooking the Mysore country. There 

 the fall to the table-land below is precipitous, though the physical 

 aspect of precipice and gorge is still somewhat rounded. The 

 western slopes of this range, towards the Wainad country, are 

 generally gradual. The Kundas, on the other hand, form a lofty 

 ridge or crest, the western side of which is wild, rugged, and 

 precipitous in the extreme. In many parts their lofty crags rise 

 almost perpendicularly to the height of several thousand feet from 

 the Nellambiir* country beneath. To the distant gaze from the 



^ Probably from gajam (Tam.), an elephant, and hatti (Karn.), a herdsman's 

 hamlet. 



* Sometimes called EUemale, the bonndary hill, from ellei, boundary, frontier, 

 and malei, a hilL 



3 The spelling above adopted is in accordance with Badaga pronunciation. 

 The word seems to be a compound of mdh, nose, ar or aru, cut, and the suffix te, 

 eignifying the feminine gender. — aruthal, " she who was cut, " has been changed 

 into arte. Mr. Stokes of Kaity inclines to this derivation, which is the basis of 

 the Badaga tradition. This ti^adition, on the authority of a Badaga catechist, he 

 gives as follows: — A woman came to this spot, where her nose was cut off by 

 some one. Disgraced, she turned herself into a mountain, and thus acquired 

 the honors of a goddess, and formed the three streams which flow at her feet in 

 different directions, afterwards uniting into one river. The first stream year by 

 year washes down an elephant and says to her sister streams, " I have brought 

 an elephant from the hills"; the second washes down a buffalo, and proclaims the 

 fact to her sisters likewise; the third brings down a man and repeats the same 

 tale. Another derivation connects the word with maha, great, and kur (Drav.), a 

 Bharp point. The popular pronunciation militates against this suggestion. In 

 Badaga ballads, " From Mrikarte to Molemava" (a fabulous tree on the eastern 

 extremity of the Hills) is the phrase equivalent to our " From Land's End to John 

 o'Groat's." 



* See Blandford's Geological Memoir. 



* Lit. the long hill or mountain. Ni'dtt (Tani.) long, extended ; and malei 

 (Tam.), n hill or mountain. 



•^ A zciiiind^ri in Malabar colobratcd for its trak forests and plantations. Name 

 derived probably from v.ella (MaL), paudy, unhuskcd rice. 



