Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Deccan

DECCAN (Dakshin, the Country of the South), in India, includes, according to Hindu geographers, the whole of the territories situated to the south of the Nerbudda. In its more modern acceptation, however, it is sometimes understood as comprising only the country lying between that river and the Krishna, the latter having for a long period formed the southern boundary of the Mahometan empire of Delhi. Assigning it the more extended of these limits, it comprehends the whole of the Indian peninsula, and in this view the mountainous system, consisting of the Eastern and Western Gháts, constitutes the most striking feature of the Deccan. These two mountain ranges unite at their northern extremities with the Vindhya chain of mountains, and thus is formed a vast triangle supporting at a considerable elevation the expanse of table-land which stretches from Cape Comorin to the valley of the Nerbudda. The surface of this table-land slopes from west to east as indicated by the direction of the drainage of the country,— the great rivers the Cauvery, Godavery, Krishna, and Pennaur, though deriving their sources from the base of the Western Gháts, all finding their way into the Bay of Bengal through fissures in the Eastern Gháts.

In early times this country embraced that possessed by the five Hindu princes of Telingana, Maharashta, the Tamul country, Orissa, and Carnata or Bijayanagar. It was first invaded by the Mahometans in 1294, who stormed Deogiri, the capital of Maharashta, and abandoned the city to pillage. In the year 1325 the Mahometans made further progress in its conquest; and having extirpated the Hindu dynasties, they annexed the provinces as far south as the Krishna to the empire of Delhi. The imperial sway was, however, of brief duration. Telingana and Carnata speedily reverted to their former masters; and this defection on the part of the Hindu states was followed by a general revolt, resulting in the establishment in 1347 of the independent Mahometan dynasty of Bahmani, and the consequent withdrawal of the power of Delhi from the territory south of the Nerbudda. In the struggles which ensued, the Hindu kingdom of Telingana fell to the Mussulmans, who at a later period formed a league against the remaining Hindu prince, and at the battle of Talikota in 1565 destroyed the monarchy of Bijayanagar or Carnata. On the dissolution of the Bahmani empire, its dominions were distributed into the five Mahometan states of Golconda, Bijápur, Ahmednagar, Beder, and Berar. Of these the larger succeeded in subverting those of less importance; and in 1630, during the reign of Shah Jahan of Delhi, the greater proportion of the Deccan had been absorbed by the kingdoms of Golconda, Ahmednagar, and Bijápur. During the reign of Aurungzebe (in the latter half of the 17th century) all those states were reduced, and the Deccan was again annexed to the empire of Delhi. In the subsequent reigns, when the great empire of Aurungzebe fell into decay, the Nizam threw off his alliegiance and fixed his court at Hyderabad. At the same time the Mahrattas, emerging from obscurity, established a powerful monarchy, which was usurped by the Peshwa. The remainder of the imperial possessions in the peninsula were held by chieftains acknowledging the supremacy of one or other of these two potentates. In the sequel, Mysore became the prize of the Mahometan usurper Hyder Ali. During the contests for power which ensued about the middle of the last century between the native chiefs, the French and the English took opposite sides. After a brief course of triumph, the interests of France declined, and a new empire in India was established by the British. Mysore formed one of their earliest conquests in the Deccan. Tanjore and the Carnatic were shortly after annexed to their dominions. In 1818 the forfeited possessions of the Peshwa added to their, extent; and these acquisitions, with others which have more recently fallen to the paramount power by cessio"n, conquest, or failure of heirs, form a continuous territory stretching from the Nerbudda to Cape Comorin. Its length is upwards of 1000 miles, and its extreme breadth exceeds 800. This vast tract comprehends the chief provinces now distributed between the presidencies of Madras and Bombay, together with the native states of Hyderabad and Mysore, and those of Kolápur, Sawantwárí, Travancore, Cochin, and the petty possessions of France and Portugal.