EARLY INDIA

to sea, and the goo fathom line is far enough seaward to
include the Laccadive Islands. Such, in brief outline, is
the orographical configuration of the continent of India—
and the story of its evolution may be learnt from the
rocks of which it is composed.
Measured by the vast ages of geological existence, the
peninsular area of India (the region of southern table-land)
is by far the oldest. On the north-western borders of
this area, stretching across the plains of Rajputana, are the
remnants of a very ancient range of mountains called the
Aravalli. To the south of these mountains the peninsula
of India, as we know it now, has been a land area since
the close of the paleozoic era. Across the exira peninsula
regions to the north-west of the Aravalli hills the sea has
repeatedly flowed even to the commencement of tertiary
ages ; and between the two regions thus separated by the
Aravallis there exists most striking differences both in
structure and in conformation. The present shape of
the peninsula—itself but a remnant of a far more widely
extended continent—has only been assumed since the
occurrence of the vast series of earth movements which
resulted in the creation of the region of depression-—the
alluvial basins of the Indus and of the Ganges. Over the
substratum of granite and gneiss which forms the ¢bedcock”
 of peninsular geologic structure, and eastward from
the Aravallis, stretch the wide red sandstone deposits
which are known as the Vindhyan system, and which (even
when buried beneath the Deccan trap) preserve a generally
horizontal position. Geologists maintain that these widespread
 unfossiliferous beds are but the detritus washed
down from the peaks and valleys of the inconceivably
ancient mountain range which is now represented by
the comparatively low and degraded Aravallis. Almost
coeval with the Aravallis (and possibly at one period connected
 with them) is the much broken and ragged formation
 known as the “Eastern Ghats” overlooking the Bay
of Bengal. So ancient is this eastern buttress of the
peninsular table-land that since the close of the paleozoic
era the waters of the bay have never washed westward,