NOTES TO LECTURE I
1. India In The Geological Ages:
Measured by the vast ages of geological existence, the peninsular area of India (the region of southern tableland) 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 palaeozoic era. In the region to the northwest of the Aravalli hills the sea has repeatedly flowed even from the commencement of tertiary ages; and between the two regions thus separated by the Aravallis there are 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 regions of depression—the alluvial basins of the Indus and of the Ganges. 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 tableland that since the close of the palaeozoic ere the waters of the bay have never washed westward, and the coast of Madras was the eastern coast-line of that pre-Indian continent of which India is now the much-diminished
