South India

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A map of South India, its rivers, regions and water bodies.

South India is a geographic and linguistic-cultural region of India. Geographically, South India traditionally includes the entire Indian Peninsula south of the Satpura and Vindhya ranges and Narmada River, encompassing the Deccan plateau (from the Sanskrit word dakshina, meaning south), the Eastern and Western Ghats, and the coasts between the Ghats and the sea.

As a linguistic-cultural and political region, South India consists of the four south Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry & Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Natives of these states are referred to as South Indians.

South India is also called Dakshina Nad (Dakshina = South + Nad = land), Dravida Nad (Dravida = Dravidian + Nad = land), or simply Dravida. Culturally and linguistically South India is distinguished as the home of the Dravidians, but not exclusively so; ethnic Dravidians also live in parts of eastern and central India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, and some non-Dravidian peoples (for example the Konkani people and other Indo-Aryans) also make their home in South India and have adopted the local language.

Tanjavur temple in Tamil Nadu.

Geography

South India is a peninsula in the shape of a vast inverted triangle, 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. In particular, the line created by the Narmada and Mahanadi rivers is the traditional boundary between northern and southern India.

The Narmada flows westwards in the depression between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges. The Satpura ranges define the northern spur of the Deccan plateau, one of the main geographic features of South India. The Western Ghats, which run along the western coast, mark another boundary of the plateau. The narrow strip of verdent land between the western ghats and the Arabian Sea is the Konkan region; the term encompasses the area below the Narmada as far South as Goa. The Western Ghats continue south, forming the Malnad (Canara) region along the Karnataka coast, and terminate at the Nilgiris, a mountain range that is actually an inward (easternly) extension of the western ghats. The Nilgiris run in a cresent approximately along the borders of Tamil Nadu with northern Kerala and Karnataka, encompassing the Palghat and Wynad hills, as also the Satyamangalam ranges, and extending on to the Eastern Ghats, a range of relatively low-lying hills ranged on western portion of the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border. The Tirupati and Annamalai hills form part of this range.

The Deccan plateau, encompassing the major portion of the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, 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 shopes gently from the Western Ghats to the eastern coast. The plateau is watered by east-flowing Godavari and Krishna rivers. The Tungabhadra, which is actually a major tributary of the Krishna, and the Pennar, are the other major rivers of the deccan plateau.

The river Kaveri rises in the western ghats, in the Kodagu district of Karnataka and flows briefly through the deccan plateau before finding its way into Tamil Nadu, where it forms an extensive and fertile delta on the east coast. Thus, all the three major river deltas of south India, the others being the Godavari and the Krishna, are placed along the Bay of Bengal. These areas constitute the "rice bowls" of south India. Rivers that flow westward, from the mountains to the Arabian Sea, include the Periyar, Nethravati, Mandovi and Tapti (or Tapi) rivers, apart from the Narmada at the northern edge of the region.

Regions

NASA satellite photo of South India, snapped on January 31, 2003.

The four states of South India generally follow linguistic boundaries. In addition to these linguistic regions, South India has a number of distinct geographic regions:

The Malabar Coast lies along the western shore of the peninsula, between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats catch the monsoon winds, and the region is rainy and densely forested. The South Western Ghats montane rain forests, which lie in the southern portion of the range, is the most species-abundant ecoregion of the Indian peninsula.

Along the east coast between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal lies the Coromandel Coast (Cholamandalam). Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast, separated from India by the Palk Strait and the chain of low sandbars and islands known as Rama's Bridge. The low coral islands of Lakshadweep and the Maldives lie off the southwest coast. The southernmost tip of India is Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin) on the Indian Ocean.

The southeastern peninsula, south of the Krishna river and its tributary the Tungabhadra, was known to Europeans as the Carnatic. It was the scene of colonial rivalries between the British, French, and Dutch in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in what is now called the Carnatic wars. The European name for the region is likely derived from the proto-Dravidian words kar and nadu, which may mean "Hilly forest land". The word Carnatic is sometimes used to denote the entirety of southern India.

History

Main article: History of South India
Chola, Chera amd Pandyas empires
Satavahana empire
Madras Presidency, 1909

South India has been at the crossroads of the ancient world, linking the Mediterranean world and the far-east. The Southern coastline from Karwar to Kodungalloor was the most important trading shore in the Indian sub-continent. This brought about a lot of intermingling of the natives with the traders.

The South Indian coast of Malabar and the tamil people of the Sangam age had trade with the Graeco Roman world. They were in contact with the Phoenicians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, Jews, and the Chinese.

There were several rulers and dynasties significant in South Indian history. The ancient history of the region consists of dynasties such as Kadambas of Banavasi, Chalukyas of Badami, Chalukyas of Kalyani, Cheras, Cholas, Hoysalas, Kakatiyas, Pallavas, Pandyas, Rashtrakutas of Manyaketha and Satavahanas. The early medieval period saw the rise of Muslim power in South India. The defeat of the Kakatiya Empire of Warangal by Tughlaq forces of the Delhi Sultanate in 1323 heralded a new chapter in South Indian history. The grand struggle of the period was between the Bahmani Sultanate based in Gulbarga (and later, Bidar) and the Vijayanagara Empire with its capital in Vijayanagara in modern Hampi. With the fall of Vijayanagara and the breakup of the Bahmani sultanate, the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda and Hyderabad became the dominant power in the region. Qutb Shahi dominance of the region continued until the middle of the 17th century, when the Mughals under Aurangzeb made determined inroads into the Deccan. Following the death of Aurangzeb, Mughal power withered, and South Indian rulers gained autonomy from Delhi. The Wodeyar kingdom of Mysore, The Asaf Jahis of Hyderabad, and Marathas came in the power.

In the middle of the 18th century, the French and the British initiated a protracted struggle for military control of South India. The period was marked by shifting alliances between the two European powers and the local powers, mercenary armies employed by all sides, and general anarchy in South India. The four Anglo-Mysore wars and the three Anglo-Maratha wars saw Mysore, Pune and Hyderabad allying themselves in turns with the British or the French. South India during the British colonial rule was divided into the Madras Presidency and Hyderabad, Mysore, Thiruvithamcoore (also known as Travancore), Cochin, Vizianagaram and a number of other minor princely states. British Residents were stationed in the capitals of the important states to supervise and report on the activities of the rulers.

After independence, most of South India was included in Madras state, which included the territory of the former Madras Presidency together with the princely states of Banganapalle, Pudukkottai, and Sandur. In 1953, the Nehru government yielded to intense pressure from the northern Telugu-speaking districts of Madras State, and allowed them to vote to create India's first linguistic state. Andhra State was created on October 1, 1953 from the northern districts of Madras State. According to the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 the boundaries of India's states were reorganised along linguistic lines. Andhra State was christened Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala was created of the Malayalam-speaking region. Madras State, which after 1956 included the Tamil-majority regions of South India, changed its name to Tamil Nadu in 1968, and Mysore State was renamed Karnataka in 1972. Portuguese India, which included Goa, was annexed by India in 1961, and Goa became a state in 1987. The enclaves of French India were ceded to India in the 1950s, and the southern four were organised into the union territory of Pondicherry.


See also:Middle kingdoms of India, History of India

Flora and fauna

Demographics

Mattancherry Palace - temple courtyard in Kerala.

South India rich in the diversity of people found. People of diverse identities are found here, with each group having their own regional language or dialect. The largest subset of people among South Indians include the Kannadigas, Malayalis, Tamilians, Telugus and the Konkanis. These groups can be further subdivided based on the region and dialect spoken. Many other distinct communities are found here.

A rich number of religious faiths are followed here, with Hinduism the predominant religion here.

South Indians are generally fiercely proud of their origins, traditions and heritage, and the cultures followed here differs significantly from other parts of India. The south Indian people have a world view which is organic and celebrates the generative ethos of the natural world. (Beck, Brenda; 1976). The conception of femininity-motherhood is central to the South Indian worldview. (Craddock, Norma; 1994). They have a distinct and unique concept of beauty that is reflected through the traditional clothing of South Indian women, the sari. (Beck, Brenda, 1976; Danielou, Alain, trans. 1965.). South Indian men traditionally wear a kind of sarong, which could be either a white dhoti or a colourful lungi with typical batik patterns.

Languages of South India

South Indians are primarily united by the Dravidian language family. It is a distinct language family which includes Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Tulu, among many others. Tamil is considered to be closest to the Proto-South Dravidian and one of the classical languages of the world. Telugu, derived from Proto-Central Dravidian and Kannada, derived from Proto-South Dravidian , show a greater admixture of words derived from Sanskrit. Telugu, the official language of Andhra Pradesh, is the second largest spoken language in India after Hindi. Malayalam was derived from Proto-Tamil-Malayalam (branch of Proto-South-Dravidian) in the late 13th century, with much less Sanskrit than Telugu and Kannada (although written Malayalam employs liberal amounts of Sanskrit) in the derived form tatbhava.

Konkani, an Indo-Aryan language, is widely spoken in Goa and coastal Karnataka, Kerala, and Maharashtra, where it has drawn heavy influences from Kannada and Malayalam. Most of Maharasthra, which includes the northern Deccan and Konkan regions of South India, is predominantly Marathi-speaking. Marathi and Konkani are part of the Southern Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages.

Economy

Main article: Economy of South India
Comparison between North India and South India
North India South India
Per capita income Rs. 8433 Rs. 13629
Literacy 59% 74%
Per capita expenditure on public health Rs.92 Rs.127
Proportion of households with electricity 49% 74%
Source: Business Today, January 2005
File:Cyber Gateway.JPG
Information Technology industry in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
File:Bangalore Infy.jpg
Information Technology industry in Bangalore, Karnataka
Lakeshore Hospital, Kochi
Tidel Park in Chennai hosts a number of IT companies.

The people are largely agrarian, dependent on monsoons, as are most people in India. Some of the main crops cultivated in South India include paddy, sorghum, millet, pulses, sugarcane, cotton, chilli, and ragi. South India was and still is the "promised land" as far as spice cultivation is concerned. Areca, coffee, tea, pepper, tapioca, and cardamom are cultivated on the hills, while coconut gorows in abundance in costal areas. Andhra Pradesh is the largest producer of rice in India.[1] Karnataka produces 70% of India's coffee. Some other crops are onion, course cereal, sunflower and peanuts. But frequent droughts in Northern Karnataka, Rayalaseema and Telangana regions are leaving farmers debt-ridden, forcing them to sell their livestock and sometimes even to suicides. Scarcity of water has been a major problem for past few years in these regions along with cities like Chennai and Hyderabad.

Chennai, referred to as the Detroit of South Asia, houses the manufacturing units of BMW, Flextronics, Ford, Hyundai, Nokia and Saint Gobain. Bangalore is headquarters to several public manufacturing heavy industries such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) and Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT).

The most notable improvement in the economy of South India in last decade or so has been Information Technology. Bangalore, the "Silicon Valley of India", is India's Information Technology hub, and is home to over 200 software companies. Between 1992-2002, Karnataka attracted the fourth highest total Foreign Direct Investment approvals in India, to the tune of Rs. 21,566 million. Chennai, Tamil Nadu ranks next only to Bangalore in the software exports in India and grossed over Rs 100,000,000,000 in 2005.[2] Tamil Nadu's net state domestic product is the largest in South India and third largest in India. It is one of the most industrialised and urbanised states in India. Unlike other States in India the state has many software tier II cities such as Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai and Hosur.Hyderabad is the next hot destination for biotechnology as well as information technology. In terms of per capita income and production, Kerala lags behind many of the Indian states, but in terms of Human Development Index and life standard of the people, Kerala is ahead of most other states in India. This peculiar paradox is often termed as the "Kerala Phenomenon" or Kerala model of development by experts.


There is also a large amount of disparity within Southern India. As IT companies have entered the economic arena, their high level of pay has raised the economic standing of young and educated professionals, while the poor has become less and less able to afford basic neccesities. It is not uncommon to see the shacks of homless people propped up against the buildings of large multinationals. The poor, unable to afford sending their children to school, remain in a cycle of life completed separated from that of this more affluent upper class.

Transport

Politics

Diversity of South India and tolerance of its inhabitants are also reflected on the political scene. Unlike North India where Congress and BJP schism constitutes the primordial divide in political life, South India is home to various, mostly local, political currents. South India was also home to the political vision of Dravida Nadu.

Main Telugu parties in Andhra Pradesh are heirs to the movement of Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao.In Tamil Nadu, the parties that dominate politics are descended from the Self-respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. Kerala has been known as a Communist powerbase since 1957.Karnataka local parties are decisive powers in state politics.

Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh is a Christian and Indian president Abdul Kalam, a Muslim, was born in Tamil Nadu. Rationalism also has a great impact in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.


Culture and Heritage

File:Kerala-girl-left.jpg
A Malayali woman dressed in a sari.

South Indians are fiercely proud of their ancient heritage, and are linguistically and culturally different from their North Indian compatriots although their cultures have influenced each other at various points in history.

The weltanschauung of most South Indians is essentially, the celebration of the eternal universe through the celebration of the beauty of the body, and motherhood. It is exemplified through its dance, clothing, and sculptures. [3]

Traditional clothing

A South Indian man wearing a mundu.

The saree, being an unstitched drape, enhances the shape of the wearer while only partially covering the midriff. In Indian philosophy, the navel of the Supreme Being is considered as the source of life and creativity. Hence by tradition, the stomach and the navel is to be left unconcealed, though the philosophy behind the costume has largely been forgotten and only the sensuality of the garment noticed. This makes the realization of sharira-mandala, where in Angikam bhuvanam yasya (the body as the world) unites with the sharira-mandala ( the whole universe), as expressed in the Natyashastra.[3] These principles of the sari, also hold for other forms of drapes, like the lungi or mund worn by men.[4]

Cuisine

Rice is the staple diet, with fish being an integral component of coastal South Indian meals. Coconut is an important ingredient in Kerala of South India, whereas the cuisine in Andhra Pradesh is characterized by the delicious pickles and the generous use of Chile powder. South Indian coffee is generally quite robust, and coffee is a preferred drink throughout the region.

Music

Main article: Carnatic music
Tyagaraja, one of the greatest South Indian composer of carnatic music.

The sophisticated Indian Classical Music of South India is known as Carnatic music. It includes sensuous rhythmic and structured music by composers like Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa, Tyagaraja, Mysore Vasudevachari and Swathi Thirunal.

Carnatic music is named after the Southern region of the Indian subcontinent named by western colonists as Carnatic. This name was used to refer to the region between the Eastern Ghats and the Coromandel Coast encompassing much of what is called today as South India. Thus the term carnatic music was used to denote South Indian music.

Dance

Mohiniaattam dance posture.

The South Indian weltanschauung is celebrated in the elaborate dance forms of South India, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Mohiniaattam which literally translates as ‘the dance of the enchantress’. The Bharatanatyam expresses the celebration of beauty and the universe, through its tenets of having a perfectly erect posture, a straight and pout curving stomach, a well rounded and proportionate body mass- to the body structure, very long hair and curvaceous hips. These tenets bring to life the philosophy of Natyashastra (the treatise on Dance by the sage Bharata), ‘Angikam bhuvanam yasya’ ((whose) body is the world).[3] This is elaborated in the araimandi posture, wherein the performer assumes a half sitting position with the knees turned sideways, with a very erect posture. In this fundamental posture of the Bharatanatyam dance, the distance between the head and the navel becomes equal to that between the earth and the navel. In a similar way the distance between the outstretched right arm to the outstretched left arm becomes equal to the distance between the head and the feet, thus representing the "Natyapurusha", the embodiment of life and creation.[3]

Architecture and paintings

Tirumala Temple in Andra Pradesh
Charminar or Four Minarets in Hyderabad.

South India boasts of two enchanting styles of rock architecture, the pure dravida style of Tamil Nadu and the Vesara style (also called Karnata dravida style) present in Karnataka. The inspirational temple sculptures of Hampi, Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole, Belur, Halebidu,Lakkundi, Shravanabelagola, Mahabalipuram, Tanjore, Madhuri and the mural paintings of Travancore and Lepakshi temples, also stand as a testament to south Indian culture. The paintings of Raja Ravi Varma are considered classic renditions of many a scenes of South Indian life and mythology. There are several examples of Dravidian mural paintings in the mattancherry palace and the Shiva kshetram in Ettamanoor.

See also Dravidian mural painting.

Sculptures and figurine

sculptures at Hampi embodying human expression, Karnataka.

Sculptures became one of the finest medium of South Indian expression after the human form of dance. In this medium it was possible to etch the three dimensional form in time.

Ruins of Vijayanagara empire at Hampi, Karnataka, Karnataka.

The traditional South Indian sculptor starts his sculpture of the divinities from the navel which is always represented unclothed by the saree. A koshta or grid of the sculpture would show the navel to be right at the centre of the sculpture, representing the source of the union of the finite body and the infinite universe.

Sculptures adorn many of the temples around the complexes and also inside them. They are also depiction of dance steps of various stylizations and have served to preserve dance forms and revive it.[5]

Literature and philosophy

South India has an independent literary tradition going back over 2000 years. The first known literature of South India are the poetic Sangams, which were written in Tamil from 2000 to 1500 years ago. The 850AD Kannada classic Kavirajamarga written by King Amoghavarsha I (Rashtrakuta dynasty) makes references to Kannada literature of King Durvinita in early 6th centuary AD. Distinct Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada literary traditions developed in the following centuries. The artistic expressions of the South Indian people shows their admiration of the magnificence of nature and its rhythms, as in the epic Silappadhikaram by Ilango Adigal, also called as the Cilappatikaram. Other works include the "Tholkappiam" written by Tholkappiar, and Thiruvalluvar’s Thirukural. In South Indian literature and philosophy, women are considered very powerful. A married woman is regarded as auspicious, her shakti or mother-feminine power, protects and empowers her husband and their children. The female form is highly regarded.

See also: Kannada literature, Malayalam literature, Tamil literature and Telugu literature, scholars from Karnataka Karnataka Literature

South Indian diversity

Knanaya- Jewish Nasrani temple in Kottayam, in Kerala containing ancient Mar Thoma cross and Sassanid Pahlavi inscriptions.
Jain monolith of Gomatheswara in Karnataka dating from 978-993 AD.

The main spiritual traditions of South Indians have included both Shaivism or Shaivite philosophy, and Vaishnavism, which are both branches of Hinduism, although Jain philosophy had been influential in Southern India several centuries earlier. Shravanabelagola in Karnataka is a popular pilgrim center for Jains.

Kodagu, in Karnataka is home to one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in the country and provides sanctuary to Tibetan Buddhist monks that fled Tibet fearing percecution from communist China.

There is also a large Muslim community in South India, particularly in the Malabar coast. The community's roots can be traced back to the ancient maritime trade between Kerala and Omanis and other Arabs. Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh is an historic center of Muslim culture in South India, and the Hyderabad region has a large Muslim population. Besides Ayyavazhi was also a fast spreading religion especially in southern districts of Tamil Nadu and in some parts of Kerala from the mid-nineteenth century.

Christianity has also flourished in coastal South India from the earliest times. St. Thomas the Apostle is believed to have come to Kerala and established the church, from which came Saint Thomas Christians (also known as Nasranis, Syrian Christians, Roman Catholics with Syrian-rite which is a combination of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and Syro-Malankara Catholic Church).

The oldest Jewish synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations is the Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi, in South India.

These two Eastern Catholic Churches, Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, both having communion with Roman Catholic Church, have their Holy-See in Kerala. Knanaya community which exists as part of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church.

Goa and Kerala are home to a significant Roman Catholic Latin Rite population. The Church of South India is an autonomous Protestant church, formed in 1947 through the merger of several Protestant denominations.

Education

Education is highly valued in the south Indian community, and is seen as a gateway to a better livelihood. Many of the nation's most prominent physicists and mathematicians have been South Indians. Kerala, while possessing a literacy rate above 98% also has the highest unemployment rates in India.

Media

Sports

The most popular sports in this region are Cricket, Kabaddi, Soccer and Badminton, with Cricket bring the most popular.

Some of the prominent sports personalities from South India are

See also

Template:Topics related to South India

Notes

  1. ^ > (Aponline quicklinks)
  2. ^ > (elcot)
  3. ^ a b c d >(Beck, Brenda. 1976; Bharata (1967); Dehejia, Vidya, Richard H. Davis, R. Nagaswamy, Karen Pechilis Prentiss, 2002; Wadley, Susan, ed. 1980) Cite error: The named reference "beck" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ > (Boulanger, Chantal; 1997)
  5. ^ > (Dehejia, Vidya, Richard H. Davis, R. Nagaswamy, Karen Pechilis Prentiss; 2002)

References & bibliography

  • Beck, Brenda. 1976. “The Symbolic Merger of Body, Space, and Cosmos in Hindu Tamil Nadu." Contributions to Indian Sociology 10(2): 213-43.
  • Bharata (1967). The Natyashastra [Dramaturgy], 2 vols., 2nd. ed. Trans. by Manomohan Ghosh. Calcutta: Manisha Granthalaya.
  • Boulanger, Chantal; (1997) Saris: An Illustrated Guide to the Indian Art of Draping, Shakti Press International, New York.
  • Craddock, Norma. 1994. Anthills, Split Mothers, and Sacrifice: Conceptions of Female Power in the Mariyamman Tradition. Dissertation, U. of California, Berkeley.
  • Danielou, Alain, trans. 1965. Shilappadikaram (The Ankle Bracelet) By Prince Ilango Adigal. New York: New Directions.
  • Dehejia, Vidya, Richard H. Davis, R. Nagaswamy, Karen Pechilis Prentiss (2002) The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India.
  • Hart, George, ed. and trans. 1979. Poets of the Tamil Anthologies: Ancient Poems of Love and War. Princeton: Princeton U. Press
  • Gover, Charles. 1983 (1871). Folk-songs of Southern India. Madras: The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society.
  • Nagaraju, S. 1990. “Prehistory of South India.” In South Indian Studies, H. M. Nayak and B. R. Gopal, eds., Mysore: Geetha Book House, pp. 35-52.
  • Trawick, Margaret. 1990a. Notes on Love in a Tamil Family. Berkeley: U. of California Press.
  • Wadley, Susan, ed. 1980. The Powers of Tamil Women. Syracuse: Syracuse U. Press.
  • Zvelebil, Kamil. 1975. Tamil Literature. Leiden: Brill.
  • Economy referenced from the encyclopedia Britannica online.
  • Some economic statistics from http://indiabudget.nic.in

External links

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