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South Asia  Actions

region, Asia
By Nina Nikolaevna Alexeeva See All • Edit History

 Table of Contents

Indus River

South Asia, subregion of Asia, consisting

of the Indo-Gangetic Plain and peninsular
India. It includes the countries of
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan,
Nepal, and Sri Lanka; Afghanistan and the
Maldives are often considered part of South
Asia as well. The term is often used
synonymously with “Indian subcontinent,”
though the latter term is sometimes used
more restrictively to refer to Bangladesh,
India, and Pakistan.

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The region is bounded to the north by a

series of mountain ranges: the Hindu Kush
to the northwest, the Karakoram Range in
the central north, and the Himalayas to the
northeast. South of the mountains is the
Indo-Gangetic Plain, formed from the
combined alluvial plains of the Indus,
Ganges (Ganga), and Brahmaputra rivers,
which lie in a deep marginal depression
running north of and parallel to the main
range of the Himalayas. It is an area of
subsidence into which thick accumulations
of earlier marine sediments and later
continental deposits have washed down
from the rising mountains. The sediments
provide fertile soil in the Ganges and
Brahmaputra basins and in irrigated parts
of the Indus basin, while the margins of the
Indus basin have become sandy deserts.
Peninsular India and Sri Lanka are formed
of platform plateaus and tablelands,
including the vast Deccan plateau, uplifted
in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. The
region includes tablelands with uplifted
margins, such as the Western and Eastern
Ghats, and terraced and dissected plateaus
with lava mantles or intrusions.

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20th-century international
relations: South Asia
The British faced a similar problem on a
much larger scale in India, whose
population included 250,000,000...

South Asia is home to one of the world’s

earliest known civilizations, the Indus
civilization, and today is one of the most
densely populated regions on the
planet.Despite a history of ethnic,
linguistic, and political fragmentation, the
people of the subregion are unified by a
common cultural and ethical outlook; a
wealth of ancient textual literature in
Sanskrit, Prākrit, and regional languages is
a major unifying factor. Music and dance,
ritual customs, modes of worship, and
literary ideals are similar throughout South
Asia, even though the region has been
divided into kaleidoscopic political patterns
through the centuries.

Calambur Sivaramamurti

Yury Konstantinovich Yefremov

Aleksandr Maximovich Ryabchikov

Nina Nikolaevna Alexeeva

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Home  Geography & Travel  Historical Places

Awadh  Actions
historic region, India
Alternate titles: Avadh, Oudh
By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

 Table of Contents

Awadh, also spelled Avadh, also called

Oudh, historic region of northern India,
now constituting the northeastern portion
of Uttar Pradesh state.

Major Events: Treaty of Faizabad • First Treaty

of Banaras

Related Places: India • Uttar Pradesh •

Lucknow

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Awadh is situated in the heavily populated

heart of the Indo-Gangetic Plain and is
known for its rich alluvial soils. It received
its name from Ayodhya, the capital of the
ancient kingdom of Kosala, which was
nearly coextensive with present-day
Awadh. It was taken by Muslim invaders in
the 12th century and became part of the
Mughal Empire in the 16th century. British
interest in Awadh began in the 1760s, and
after 1800 they exercised increasing control
there. It was annexed (as Oudh) by the
British in 1856, an action that greatly
angered Indians and which has been cited
as a cause of the Indian Mutiny (1857–58),
the largest Indian rebellion against British
rule. Lucknow, the region’s most populous
city, was the scene of much fighting during
the unsuccessful revolt. In 1877 the British-
controlled Oudh region was joined with
Agra to form the United Provinces of Agra
and Oudh. After India’s independence in
1947 that territory became part of Uttar
Pradesh.

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This article was most recently revised and

updated by Kenneth Pletcher.

Home  Geography & Travel  Physical Geography of Land

 Plains & Plateaus

Deccan  Actions
plateau, India
Alternate titles: Deccan Plateau
By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

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Deccan, the entire southern peninsula of

India south of the Narmada River, marked
centrally by a high triangular tableland.
The name derives from the Sanskrit
daksina (“south”). The plateau is bounded
on the east and west by the Ghats,
escarpments that meet at the plateau’s
southern tip. Its northern extremity is the
Satpura Range. The Deccan’s average
elevation is about 2,000 feet (600 metres),
sloping generally eastward. Its principal
rivers—the Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri
(Cauvery)—flow from the Western Ghats
eastward to the Bay of Bengal. The
plateau’s climate is drier than that on the
coasts and is arid in places.

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The Deccan’s early history is obscure. There

is evidence of prehistoric human
habitation; low rainfall must have made
farming difficult until the introduction of
irrigation. The plateau’s mineral wealth led
many lowland rulers, including those of the
Mauryan (4th–2nd century BCE) and Gupta
(4th–6th century CE) dynasties, to fight
over it. From the 6th to the 13th century,
the Chalukya, Rastrakuta, Later Chalukya,
Hoysala, and Yadava families successively
established regional kingdoms in the
Deccan, but they were continually in
conflict with neighbouring states and
recalcitrant feudatories. The later
kingdoms also were subject to looting raids
by the Muslim Delhi sultanate, which
eventually gained control of the area.

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In 1347 the Muslim Bahmanī dynasty

established an independent kingdom in the
Deccan. The five Muslim states that
succeeded the Bahmanī and divided its
territory joined forces in 1565 at the Battle
of Talikota to defeat Vijayanagar, the Hindu
empire to the south. For most of their
reigns, however, the five successor states
formed shifting patterns of alliances in an
effort to keep any one state from
dominating the area and, from 1656, to
fend off incursions by the Mughal Empire
to the north. During the Mughal decline in
the 18th century, the Marathas, the nizam
of Hyderabad, and the Arcot nawab vied for
control of the Deccan. Their rivalries, as
well as conflicts over succession, led to the
gradual absorption of the Deccan by the
British. When India became independent in
1947, the princely state of Hyderabad
resisted initially but joined the Indian
union in 1948.

This article was most recently revised and

updated by Maren Goldberg.

Home  Philosophy & Religion  Religious Places

Akal Takht  Actions

religious site, Amritsar, India
By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

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Akal Takht

Akal Takht, (Punjabi: “Throne of the

Timeless One”) the chief centre of religious
authority of Sikhism. It is located in the city
of Amritsar in Punjab state, northwestern
India. Similar seats of authority (takhts)
are located at Anandpur and Talwando
Sabo (near Bathinda) in Punjab, Patna in
Bihar state, and Nanded in Maharashtra
state.

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The Akal Takht is part of the complex of

religious buildings centred on the
Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple, the
principal Sikh house of worship. It is
situated just beyond a large gateway at the
entrance to the causeway across the tank
(pool) that leads to the Golden Temple. The
building was badly damaged during the
assault on the Golden Temple by the Indian
army in June 1984. It was subsequently
rebuilt.

When in 1708 Guru Gobind Singh declared

that the line of personal Gurus (religious
guides) had come to an end, the authority
of the office of Guru was considered to be
embodied in the holy scriptures, the Adi
Granth. Disputes in interpretation had to
be settled by the entire Sikh community.
Decisions were made at annual or
semiannual meetings in Amritsar, when
groups would assemble behind their elected
leaders in the open area in front of the Akal
Takht. Resolutions had to be carried
unanimously; they then became gurmatas
(decisions of the Guru) and were binding
on all Sikhs. Both political and religious
decisions were taken at Akal Takht
meetings up until 1809, when Maharaja
Ranjit Singh, the leader of the newly
unified Sikh state, abolished political
gurmatas and began to seek counsel from
both Sikhs and non-Sikhs. Resolutions of
local congregations on nonpolitical matters
relating to the interpretation of Sikh
doctrine or rules of conduct now can be
appealed to the Akal Takht; decisions taken
there are conveyed in the form of
hukamnamas (orders). A hukamnama
issued from the Akal Takht is considered
mandatory for all Sikhs.

This article was most recently revised and

updated by Kenneth Pletcher.

Home  Geography & Travel  Physical Geography of Land

Kaimur Hills
 Mountains & Volcanoes  Table of Contents

Kaimur Hills  Actions

hills, India
Alternate titles: Kaimur Range
By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

 Table of Contents

Kaimur Hills, also called Kaimur

Range, eastern portion of the Vindhya
Range, starting near Katangi in the
Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh and
running generally east for a distance of
about 300 miles (480 km) to Sasaram in
Bihar. Its maximum width is about 50
miles (80 km).

After traversing the northern part of

Jabalpur and southeast Maihar, the range
turns to the east and runs through Rewa.
There it separates the valley of the Son and
Tons rivers and continues into the
Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh and the
Shahabad district of West Bengal. The
range has a distinctive jagged appearance
in Madhya Pradesh, with metamorphic
rock formations and upheaved rock strata.
The range almost disappears at places,
being marked by a low chain of rocks, and
it never rises more than a few thousand feet
above the plain. The ruined fort of Rohtas
is situated in these hills, and archaeological
explorations have uncovered well-
preserved prehistoric rock art and
paintings in caves and sheltered areas in
Bihar.

This article was most recently revised and

updated by Michael Ray.

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