Geographical Factors Bahmani Sultanate:1

GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS      

            Mahmood Shah Bahmani II

           

 

MAN AND HIS SURROUNDINGS        

 

 

THE proposition that there is an immediate relationship Of Geography with the story of human experience needs No proof. This aspect of the question has, however, been overlooked by some historians and political scientists of Great note, and today one is apt to forget what a remarkable effect the configuration of the earth's crust, itself The effect of numerous causes has on the habits of the people and their ways of thought.

 

The tradition of Ibn-i-Khaldun stressing the effect of climate on human habitat was continued by Baron de Montesquieu in the eighteenth century, and thinkers began to lay down their ideas not in terms of An abstract "average" man who hardly ever existed, but in terms of the living man of flesh and blood who was by his very nature a creature of his environments of which perhaps The most important and lasting aspect is geographical.

 

As is well-known, Geography simply means a description of the earth. But earth forms-crust as well as the outer Core-are themselves the result of number of natural phenomena which go on changing these forms imperceptibly Almost from day to day, although it might, take thousands and millions of years for the change to be at all significant.

There are, no doubt certain almost automatic changes which are taking place before our very eyes, such as changes in the courses of rivers and erosions of the coast-line by the action Of the winds and sea; but there are other changes in the structure of the earth which are too lasting to be taken Into account by history, and which have changed the face of the earth and formed the basis of the character of the Inhabitants of a particular region.

 

Thus the formation of mountains the lavaic formation of the earth, the course of rivers, the width of their valleys and basins, the proximity to the sea, elevation, slope, latitude and the resultant precipitation-all these have a definite and visible effect on the life and character of the people as well as on the experiences of their collective community life which is, after all, history.

 

 

THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA.

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/South_India_in_AD_1400.jpg

 

It is not necessary here to discuss the geography of the sub-continent of India in any detail and its bearing on its history, but reference may be made here to some geographical phenomena, as they will clarify the position of the Deccan itself.

 Perhaps the most prominent feature of the Eurasian continent is the land of India hanging gracefully southwards nearly in the middle of the great mass of land with its eastern and western coasts separated in the north by 2,000 odd miles from each other, slowly and artistically converging towards each other till the southernmost extremities of the two coast lines touch each other at Cape Comorin where the Arabian Sea is joined on to the outset of the Bay of Bengal forming the northern limit of the Indian Ocean. 

While this sub-continent containing four hundred millions of the human race is surrounded south of 25° N by the sea, it is separated by the neighboring lands lying north of that latitude by the biggest mass of rock formation in the world, the Himalayan Wall, ranging 1,300 miles between the gorges of the Indus in the west and the Brahmaputra in the east from 150 to 300 miles in width.

 Apart from being a most effective barrier to man coming from due north it has been one of the causes of keeping away intense cold from the plains of Hindustan,for otherwise Indian climate would have been at least as cold as the southern provinces of China proper.

From about 95 E this mass takes a sharp turn southwards forming the Yomas of Burma which are not as high as the northern mass of the Himalayas, yet are assisted by wet monsoons helping the growth of dense forests, and the two geographical phenomena together have successfully barred the access of intruders from the east and north-east.

 

The progress of the mountain passes to the west of the gorge of the Indus is different in essence to that in the east, for instead of being concentrated it spreads out to the north-east and South-west with its apex in the Great Pamir Plateau, and as it spreads it loses its height. At some places this height is lost to the extent that passes such as the Khyber and the Bolan are formed.

 These passes, however, reach consider able heights, for instance the Khyber is 2500 ft. and the Bolan 5,000 ft. above sea level.