History of South India – Part 1 : Introduction
———————————————————–
South India is the area encompassing India’s states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India’s area (635780 km² or 245476.030 mi²). The region is also known as Dravida as is used in the National anthem
South India lies in the peninsular Deccan Plateau and is bounded by the Arabian Sea in the west, the Indian Ocean in the south and the Bay of Bengal in the east.
The geography of the region is diverse, encompassing two mountain ranges, the Western and Eastern Ghats, and a plateau heartland. The Godavari, Krishna, Tungabhadra, Kaveri, and Vaigai rivers are important non-perennial sources of water.
Apart from the English language terms South India and Peninsular India, southern India has been known by several other historic names.
Adi Shankara coined the name Dravida in the 8th century as he called himself Dravida Shishu, meaning a child from South India (see etymology of Dravida).
The term Deccan, an Anglicized form of the word “Dakhhin” which is a derived from the word dakshina meaning south, refers only to the area covered by the Deccan Plateau, a volcanic plateau that covers most of peninsular India excluding the coastal areas.The Carnatic is an English term derived from “Karnad” or “Karunad”,
meaning high country. The terms Karnad and Carnatic have long overgrown particular association with the plateau and refer to all of South India, including the coasts, the western of which is named the Carnatic coast. The name Karnataka is derived from the same root.
A majority of Indians from the southern region speak one of the languages: Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, and Kodava. During its history, a number of dynastic kingdom is ruled over parts of South India whose invasions across southern and southeastern Asia impacted the history and cultures of modern sovereign states such as Sri Lanka, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
South India is a peninsula bounded on the west by the Arabian Sea, on the east by the Bay of Bengal and on the north by the Vindhya and Satpura ranges.
The Narmada flows westwards in the depression between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges. The Satpura ranges define the northern spur of the Deccan plateau.
The Western Ghats, along the western coast, mark another boundary of the plateau. The narrow strip of verdant land between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea is the Konkan region. The Western Ghats continue south, forming the Malenadu (Canara) region along the Karnataka coast, and terminate at the Nilgiri mountains, an inward (easterly) extensionof the Western Ghats. The Nilgiris run in a crescent approximately along the borders of Tamil Nadu with northern Kerala and Karnataka, encompassing the Palakkad and Wayanad hills, and the Satyamangalam ranges, and extending on to the relatively low-lying hills of the Eastern Ghats, on the western portion of the Tamil Nadu – Andhra Pradesh border. The Tirupati and Annamalai hills form part of this range. The low lying coral islands of Lakshadweep are off the south-western coast of India. Sri Lanka lies off the south-eastern coast, separated from India by the Palk Strait and the chain of low sandbars and islands known as Rama’s Bridge. The Andaman and Nicobar islands lie far off the eastern coast of India, near the Tenasserim coast of Burma. The southernmost tip of mainland India is at Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin) on the Indian Ocean.
The Deccan plateau is the vast elevated region bound by the C-shape defined by all these mountain ranges. No major elevations border the plateau to the east, and
it slopes gently from the Western Ghats to the eastern coast. The plateau is watered by the east flowing Godavari and Krishna rivers. The other major rivers of the Deccan plateau are the Pennar and the Tungabhadra, a major tributary of the Krishna. Vaigai and Thamirabarani River are major rivers which emerge from the southern part of the Western ghats, flow eastward and empty into the Bay of Bengal. The three major river deltas of South India, the Kaveri, the Godavari and the Krishna, are located along the Bay of Bengal. These major rivers provided irrigation to much of the land which provided food grain to Southern India. In particular the coastal detla regions traditionally constituted the rice bowls of South India.
There is a wide diversity of plants and animals in South India, resulting from its varied climates and geography. Deciduous forests are found along the Western Ghats while tropical dry forests and scrub lands Deccan thorn scrub forests are common in the interior Deccan plateau. The southern Western Ghats have high altitude rain forests called the South Western Ghats montane rain forests. The Malabar Coast moist forests are found on the coastal plains. The Western Ghats itself is a biodiversity hotspot. Some of India’s famous protected areas are found in South India. These include Project Tiger reserves Periyar National Park, Kalakad – Mundanthurai and Nagarjunsagar Wildlife Sanctuary. Important ecological regions of South India are the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, located at the conjunction of the borders of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the Nilgiri Hills including Mudumalai National Park, Bandipur National Park, Nagarhole National Park Silent Valley National Park, Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary and Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary and the Anamalai Hills including the Eravikulam National Park, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary and the adjacentThe Indira Gandhi Wildlife
Sanctuary and National Park of the Western Ghats. Important bird sanctuaries including Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary, Neelapattu Sanctuary and Pulicat Sanctuary are home to numerous migratory and local birds.
The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, one of the most important sancturies in India. Other protected ecological sites include the backwaters like the Pulicat Lake in Andhra Pradesh, Pitchavarum in Tamil Nadu and the famed backwaters of Kerala formed by the Vembanad Lake, the Ashtamudi Lake and the Kayamkulam Lake. Western Ghats in Erode District of Tamil Nadu Banana, Musaparadisiaca and Moringa oleifera are found extensively in Lakshadweep while coconut plantations provide economic support to the islands. Lakshadweep has been declared a bird sanctuary by the Wildlife Institute of India.Crabs, chiefly hermit crabs, parrot fish and butterfly fish are also found on the islands.
The estimated population of South India is 233 million.The largest linguistic groups in South India include the Telugus, Tamils, Kannadigas, Malayalis, Tuluvas and Kodavas. About 83% of South Indians follow Hinduism. Islam has the second-highest number of followers in the region, with 11%, while 5% follow Christianity. The average literacy rate of South India is approximately 73%, considerably higher than the Indian national average of 60%. Kerala leads the nation with a literacy rate of 92%. The sex ratio in South India is fairly equable at 997; Kerala is the only state in India with a favourable sex ratio. The population density of the region is approximately 463. Scheduled Castes and Tribes form 18% of the population of the region. Agriculture is the major employer in the region – 47.5% of the population is involved in agrarian activities. About 60% of the population lives in permanent housing structures. 67.8% of South India has access to tap water. Wells and springs are other major forms of water supply.
The languages of South India are the Dravidian represented by Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu, besides Gondi and other minor dialects, and the Austro-Asiatic by the Munda languages. South India’s predominant language family is Dravidian, a family of approximately seventy-three languages spoken in South Asia. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 divided states in India along linguistic lines and led to the creation of separate states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in areas where Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil respectively were dominant.
Tamil was accorded the status of classical language by the Government of India in 2004 and has about 60 million native speakersin India and over 10 million in other countries. Kannada and Telugu were accorded the classical language status in 2008. In the 2001 Census, Telugu had the third largest base of native speakers in India (74 million), after Hindi and Bengali. Kannada has about 38 million native speakers, while Malayalam has 33 million native speakers. Each of these languages is listed as an official language of India, per the Official Languages Act (1963).
Urdu is spoken by over half of the 25 million Muslims in southern India. South Indian Muslims in some regions of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka speak a dialect of Urdu called Dakhni, while some in the Dakshina Kannada region of Karnataka and regions in Kerala speak Beary bashe. Both Dakhni and Beary bashe are influenced by other South Indian languages. Tulu, a Dravidian language prevalent in coastal Kerala and Karnataka, is spoken by about 1.5 million people in the region, while Konkani, an Indo-Aryan language, is spoken by over half a million people in the region. English is also widely spoken in urban areas of South India.