ASIA, SOUTH | India, Deccan and Central Plateau

Abstract

The term ‘Deccan’ derives ultimately from the ancient Sanskrit dakshina, which referred to ‘the South’. By the colonial period it came to be used to refer to the Indian Peninsula, south of the river Narmada, as opposed to ‘Hindustan’ for the regions north of the Peninsula. Sometimes it is used to indicate the interior plateau of the peninsula as opposed to Concan or coastal plains. Authors will sometimes include Central India in the Deccan and anything separated from the northern Ganges plains by the Vindhya hills and demarcated from the west by the Aravalli hills of Rajasthan. Central and peninsular India can be distinguished on the grounds of cultural and physical geography. Central India and the Peninsula are often considered together as the Deccan region. The core of the Deccan then is the modern states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, while some consideration will be given to adjacent Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh in the north, and Tamil Nadu in the southeast. This peninsular region, south of the Tapti River, and Central India between Tapti River and the Vindhya hill ranges, that fringe the Ganges basin, is geographically distinct from the wide alluvial plains of the Indus and Ganges. In terms of culture history the peninsular region is dominated by languages in the Dravidian family distinct from the Indo-Aryan (Indo-European) languages of northern and northwestern South Asia. Even in Central India (Madhya Pradesh) and the northern peninsula (Maharashtra), where Indo-Aryan languages are spoken today there is evidence from place names, vocabulary, and marriage traditions to suggest the former presence of Dravidian languages. On the northeastern part of the region is the center of diversity of the distinct Munda language family.