THE 

 HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



CHAPTEE I 



INTRODUCTORY 



People commonly talk of the " hills " and the " plains " 

 of India, meaning by the former the great Himalayan 

 range, and by the latter all the rest of the country. The 

 mightiest mountains of the earth are called nothing more 

 than " hills " : and popular geography has no name for 

 the numerous excrescences of mother earth which inter- 

 sect the so-called region of " plains." A range called 

 the Nilgherries, in the south of the peninsula, approaching 

 9000 feet in altitude, is known to a few beyond the limits 

 of India as a resort of invalids, and a nursery for cinchonas ; 

 but of lesser ranges than this, which would still be called 

 mountains in any other country, the mass of " ordinary 

 readers " has no cognisance. 



Much of this has really been owing to the unexplored 

 and undescribed condition of such regions ; but something 

 also to the overwhelming prominence of the great northern 

 range, which rivets the attention of teachers of geography 

 and their pupils, and also, from the exigencies of the art 

 of chartography, renders it almost impossible to delineate 

 on ordinary maps of India the features of inferior ranges. 



Yet in the very centre of India there exists a consider- 

 able region to which the term Highlands, which I have 

 adopted for a title, is strictly applicable ; and in which 

 are numerous peaks and ranges, for which the term , 

 " mountain " would, in any other country, be used. 

 Several of the great rivers of India have their first sources 



