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Unit-1 Environment and Early Patterns of Adaptation PDF
Unit-1 Environment and Early Patterns of Adaptation PDF
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Physical Geography and History
1.2.1 Environment and Human Settlements
1.2.2 Arguing Against Geographical Determinism
1.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this Unit you should be able to explain :
Why in the study of the history of a country an understanding of its physical features is
n-ry,
how we look at the physical features as students of history,
the relationship between environment, geography and history, and
the uneven pattern of historical growth in the Indian sub-continent.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
History without geography is largely incomplete and devoid of its vital substance for it loses
focus in the absence of the concept of space. That is why history is regarded both as the
history of mankind and the history of environment. It is difficult to separate the two. The
history of humans and the history of environment mutually influence one another. Soil,
rainfall, vegetation, climate and environment exercise considerable influence on the evolution
of human cultures. In fact, the essence of human progress is the increasing emancipation of
human beings from the clutches of nature or control of the vagaries of nature. In this regard
technological progress helps human beings in conquering their environment. However, not
until a very late stage in history were human beings able to control their environment
effectively. Naturally, thus as we move back in time it becomes necessary to appreciate and
understand the geography, environment and physical regions that had a bearing on Indian
history.
In this Unit, we shall try to acquaint you with the physical features of the Indian subcontinent, which have had an important bearing on historical developments.
PHYSICAL REGIONS
AREAS OF ISOLATION OR
C U L DE SACS
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PENETRATED IN RECENT T I M E S
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correspond to culture zones or regions i.e., they tend to differ from one another at the level of
language, food, dress, crop pattern, population density, caste structure, etc. For example, in
some areas like Uttar Pradesh and northern Bihar-the fertile plains of the Ganga
Valley-population concentration is very high, while the mountainous tribal central India is
sparsely populated. Similarlv, certain areas like Magadha, Kosala, Avanti. Maharashtra.
Andhra, Kalinga and the Chola country emerged earlier as developed pockets while others
lagged behind. Historically, the emergence of regions has therefore been uneven, and different
regions have been characterised by differential characteristics, which are largely related to and
influenced by geography and environment. To give another example, we find that wheat is the
staple food of people in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, while rice is the principal
crop and main component in the diet of people in eastern India viz. Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
Why is this so? This is so because :
different crops have different natural habitat zones,
they tend to grow in specific natural environments., and
in course of time they influence the dietary habits of people there.
Similarly, forms of irrigation differ from region to region :
rivers and canals have been the m'ost important form of ifrigation in northern India,
ponds have been very useful in eastern India, and
tank irrigation has played a significant role in SouthIndian agriculture.
These variations do not mean that rivers are not important in eastern and southern regions.
But what they reflect is that people take recourse to different methods to augment additional
water sources in different regions, depending on what method is most suitable for a particular
region.
Geography and environment play a major role in the pattern of dresses also. For example, we
can compare and contrast the dress styles of the people of Kashmir, Rajasthan and those living
along the coasts. This again reflects the climatic and environmental effects.
While the riverine plains and deltas have given birth to and sustained advanced cultures
through the ages, the mountainous intermediate zone of central India has retained heavy
concentration of tribal 8populqtion in various pockets. Thus, while the riverine plains are
liberally endowed by nature and have lives of their own the isolated regions remained
unaffected by advances made in other regions. The co-existence of different forms of dress, .
food-habits and cultures in the sub-continent, therefore, can be largely explained with reference
to physical geography.
Regional differences and related separate regional identities, greatly fostered bjr geography,
have stood in the way of the rise of durable, pan-Indian states in Indian histdry. Never was the
whole sub-continent a single political unit. This holds true for the Mauryan impire, the Delhi
sultanate, the Moghul empire as well as British India. At the same time, it needs to be
emphasised that though these differences between regions, which are geographically structured,
have prevented the rise of pan-Indian states in our history, yet at no period have they created
separate nationalities.
On the other hand, one is struck by the success of the Magadhan Empire and by the kind of
political ascendancy it achieved. How do we account for it? It can be argued that it was a
product of the convergence of a number of factors :
highly fertile soils,
sufficientrainfall ensuring a rich annual paddy crop;
proximity to iron ore mines and sources of stone and timber of Chotanagpur Plateau wbk
is towards the south of Magadha;
the rivers provided for comfortable communication and trade;
the closeness and continuity of settlements, facilitated in no small way by these natural
advantages, indicating great population density.
A combination of these factors helped the comfortable conquest of the northern Gangetic
plain. In fact, it was due to these reasons that the Indo-Gangetic plains as a region was way
ahead of others in terms of agricultural productivity or population base. The territorial
expansion over the northern plains then provided the basis for the exercise of unquestionable
Indian supremacy. All this fits into a neat sequence-one deriving itself from the other. The
supremacy achieved by Magadha was based on the conquest of the northern plains which wa
blessed by the tavourable convergence of necessary variables such as soil, rainfall, vegetation,
easy communication lines and availability of natural resources.
With the political ascendency of Magadha, its capital Pataliputra became the capital of
northern India or the imperial capital and it continued to remain important for many
centuries. Geographical reasons have been put forward to explain both the rise and fall of
pataliputra. While in its early history the surrounding rivers like the Ganga, Son and Gandak
provided for natural defence and easy trade and transport, by the middle of the first
millennium A.D. they had become positive liabilities owing to perennial floods. It is known
that the Gupta and post-Gupta period was characterised by the decline of trade and the decay
of towns. With the decline of north Indian trade and commerce, in the Gupta and post-Gupta
periods, the curtailed human movements and the shifting away of the course of
the river Ganga, the usefulness of the rivers was reduced. One may add that to explain the
decay of towns in Gangetic northern India in the same period geographical explanations such
as the deforestation of the hinterland and consequent reduction of rainfall have also been
suggested. These explanations may not always be correct but the examples definitely suggest
that the interrelationship between historical processes and geographical features and/or factors
was always close.
On the southern edge of the intermediate zone or central India begins the formation called
Peninsular India. It is an old land mass with every sign of stability. The rocky formation gently
slopes from west to east, and four major rivers flow into the bay of Bengal. These four riversMahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri have produced alluvial plains and helped the
creation of nuclear areas in the plains and deltas enabling the sustenance of cultural growth for
prolonged period continuously through ancient, medieval and modem times.
The Narmada and the Tapti, however, have a westward flow and run into the Arabian sea in
Gujarat after traversing a long distance in hilly central India. The well known feature of the
region is the Deccan plateau.
It extends from the Vindhyas in the north to the southern limits of Karnataka. The black soil
in Maharashtra and in the adjoining parts of central India is especially rich for it retains
moisture and is considered to be "self ploughing". Therefore, it helps in overcoming other
kinds of limitations imposed by less annual rainfall and irrigational difficulties. The soil yields
good crops of cotton, millets, peanuts and oil seeds. Not surprisingly therefore the early
farming cultures (Chalcolithic) in western and central India emerged in this area. In the west
the plateau terminates with the Western Ghats and in the east its contours are marked by the
Eastern Ghats which separate it from the eastern coastal plains which are wider compared to
the narrow plains in the west. The Nilgiris and the Cardamom hills are considered to be offshoots of the basic peninsular formation.
e.
........................................................................
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STRUCTURAL OUTLINES
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PIR PANJAL
3 PiUinIbebhnls:
i) Geographical factom ...................................... (help us/do not help us) in daerminhg
the factors behind tbe ........................... (rise and dacline/flooding) of Mqdba.
ii) Human be@ ..................(attempt to/sucoessfully) controt nature.
iii) The basic physiographic divisions in Iodia are ..................(five/two/thrse).
iv) The intermediary zone may &of ..................(basic physiognpbic/mb-qkn@.
Iadirnaunprignsledaseaionofhisumy~~~~theWrancourtbeJutimdberq~ia
men because of the paucity of food and water. The region has been some kind of a nodal
point, for routes to Central Asia and China on the one hand and Persia and farther w a t on
td
~ n v i r o n m e n ~ a nEarly
d
Patterns of
Adaptation
Gree4 Sakas, Kushanas, Hunas and others made their entry into India through these routes.
Buddhism and other aspects of Indian civilization entered Afghanistan and Central Asia
through these pa&s. Historically thus the Afghan and Baluchistan hills have an important
frontier zone.
'
The lower Indus valley and the delta constitute Sind. Geographically between the Baluchistan
hills on the north-west and the Thar desert on the southcast. However, there have been
hhtoridlinks with Gujarat. Rainfall in the region is extremely low but the alluvial soil is Lery
fertile. Sind is situated by the Indus and produces large quantities of rice and wheat. As
mentioned earlier the Indus plain had nurtured the sub-mntiaent's first urban culture during
the 2nd millennium B.C. Two of its major cities Harappa and Mohenjodaro are located in
Punjab and Sind respectively.
central focal point. It is a hilly region where the hills do not rise to any great height but are
broken by steep slopes and intersected by valleys. The hills normally run in an east-west
ohtation. However, the Aravalis in the north-western part of this physiographic division
extend from south-west to north-east. The Aravalis almost bisect Rajasthan, the desert state.
The southeastern part of the state to the east of the Aravalis is part of a subregion called
Malwa. Because of the fertility of the soil the e o n yields good crops even in the absence of
irrigation. Chaloolithic settlements are distributed in good numbers in the region. Given its
geographical location it must have acted as a bridge between the Harappans and the other
Chalcolithic communities in Central India and the northern Deccan. Culturally it emerged as
an extension of the northern plains in later periods. In the east the Chattisgarh plains on the
Upper Mahanadi is a fertile minor region with good rainfall and paddy yield. From the 4th5th century historical developments there were akin to those in the rolling uplands of western
Orissa. There have been cultural and political interactions between the areas due to
geographical contiguity.
Most of what we have designated as Central India constitutes the present Madhya Pradesh.
Movement from the north to the south is impeded by the Vindhya and Satpura ranges and by
the Narmada and Tapti rivers. The Central Indian belt, especially southern Bihar, western
Olissa and eastern Madhya Pradesh, has been an area of tribal concentration. Nevertheless, it
has also been a zone of slow and steady penetration. Cultural influences from adjoining
regions have influenced and integrated the tribals into the dominant caste-peasant base of
Indian &ty from early historic times and more so from the Gupta period.
Gujarat is situated on the western fringe of the Central Indian belt. It consists of three natural
divisions: Saurashtra, Anarta (N. Gujarat) and Lata (S. Gujarat). Semiarid wind blown-soils
characterise Anarta and the fertile area on the western coast constitutes Lata. The central
peninsula of Gujarat is called Kathiawar. The low-lying Rann of Kutch is another feature
which during the monsoons turns into a swamp. In spite of these physical sub-divisions
Gjarat has a cultural identity and unity because it is broadly bounded by the Vindhyas and
Western Ghats in the east and by the desert on the north. Although it appears to have been a
zone of isolation actually it is a region of continuous ancient settlements dating back'from the
Harappan period. Saurashtra, on account of its geographical closeness to the Indus,
experienced an extension of the Harappan civilization. It has often been a transition zone
between Sind and lands farther west and India. The plain here is enriched by the alluvium
brought from the Central Indian hills by the Narmada, Tapti, Sabarmati and Mahi rivers.
Because of its protected position and the lengthy coast line Gujarat has been the focus of
coastal and external trade for more than four thousand years.
To the south-west of the delta of the Ganga at the eastern end of the hills of Central India are
the coastal plains of Orissa. The coastal plains are centred largely on the Mahanadi delta
though there are some other rivers too joining the Bay of Bengal on the same littoral. Western
Orissa is an extension of the Central Indian hills and as mentioned earlier in the context of the
Chattisgarh plain it shares some of the same features. Thus, there are two physiographic
divisions in Orissa exhibiting uneven patterns of growth. The fertile coastal plain with a richer
agrarian base has provided a focal point and has been the centre of soci~ultural
development. Orissa began to develop her linguistic and cultural identity late in the first
millennium A.D.
Among the four south Indian states Andhra is the largest. It includes a number of sub-regions
like Telangana, the rich coastal plains, Rayalaseema etc. The northwestern part of the state on
the Deccan plateau, as already mentioned, is called Telangana. The reddish soils are not rich
and the main crops are millets, pulses and oil seeds. In the east a part of the Eastern Ghats and
the W r n coastal plain, from near about Mahendragiri on the borders of M
s
s
a in the north
to Tamil Nadu in the south, with the combined Krishm-Godavari delta as its epicentre are
included in Andhra. It is essentially a rice growing area. The area between the two rivers on
the coast, known in early times as Vengi, is considered a ricebowl. Jike the Raichur doab,
between the Krishna and Tungabhadra, it was fought over frequently all through ancient
history.
The Deccan plateau fragments into isolated blocks like the Nilgiri and the Cardamom hills in
the extreme south. They roughly divide the western and eastern coastal plains. The wide
Eastern coastal plain in the south and its adjoining hinterland constitute Tamil Nadu. The
littoral districts produce an abundance of rice and the Kaveri plain and its delta constitute its
epicentre. The rivers in the region being seasonal, the peasants of the region have relied on
tank irrigation since the Pallava-Chola times. The unirrigated pockets produce millets, pulses
and oils seeds. Interestingly, these ecological variations which supported alternative, at times
interrelated, ways of life are attested to in the earliest literature of the land, the Sangam
literature. Geographically,linguistically and culturally the region has evolved an individuality
of its own. The western coastal plain too broadens in the estreme south and corresponds to the
region known as Malabar ctr the present state of Kerala. In addition to rice and other crops
Kerala produces pepper and spices which have been traded with the west since the postMauryan times. From Tamil Nadu the littoral is accessible through the Patghat gap and the
southern end of the Western Ghats. Relatively isolated by land, Kerala has been open to the
sea and interestingly first the Christian and then the Muslim influence here came by sea. It
may be noted that both Kerala and Tamil Nadu are densely populated like the plains of the
GwP.
\
1
1.5
LET US SUM UP
The physical divisions in the subcontinent are often rorighly -terminus with the linguistic
re.gions. The latter in turn have developed and asserted their cultural identities. The people of
the W a n t physical divisions have varied tastes. food-habits, and dress sense. This is derived
INDIA
RAINFALL
FOREST TYPES
EVERGREEN FOREST
MONSOON DECIOUOUS
TROPICAL SAVANNAH
DRY FOREST
zoo
100
HIMALAYAN FOREST
LDO
from the environmental setting and the mode of life and the manner of resource utilisation that
has evolved within their frontiers. The uneven pattern of growth both between and within the
macroregions may be explained with reference to the availability or non-availability of
resource potentialities and the fonn of human and technological intervention. The major river
basins of the country which have an annual rainfall between 50 and 100 cms. and are capable
of sustaining agricultural communities on a large scale have been fully colonized through the
ages (for raio'fall see map 3). Areas with lesser or greater Mnfall s e e r from problems of
aridity and thick jungle vegetation respectively and are not best suited ftx agriculture. There is
a striking correlation between the optimal rainfall zone and the areas cleared for cultivation in
the s h n t i n e n t (see map 4D.The unfolding of the historical procea thenfore has neither
beet even nor uniform all over.
The Himalayas in the north and the ocean in the south, south-west and southeast mate a
superficial view of the isolation of the sub- continent. Cultural influence8 have been exchanged
across these frontiers and there have been maritime contacts with the West, West Asia and
Southeast Asia. Internally, even the rugged, difficult terrain of Central India has not really
impeded the movement of ideas and iduences between the varied regions of the country.
Admittedly, geography and environment influence historical developments considerably, even
if they do not determine it entirely.
2 Your answer should include high fertile soils, irrigation facilities, proximity to various
resources like stone, timber eto. See Sub-sec. 1.2.1
3 i) helps us, rise and decline
ii) attempt to
iii) three
iv) sub-regions
India :Phydal
thm, units
swamp, momoon
iii) mibe, oilteds
iv) baks, -tion
2 i)
ii)