South India

• 1. Introduction

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  South India holds more than half of India's entire elephant population. That single fact hints at the ecological density of this peninsula. The region covers 635,780 square kilometers, about 19.31% of India's land area, and roughly one fifth of its population. The Arabian Sea defines its western boundary. The Bay of Bengal runs along the east, and the Indian Ocean closes it to the south. The Western Ghats along the western rim rank among the eight hottest biodiversity hotspots on Earth and carry UNESCO World Heritage status. Four of its languages have each been individually recognized as classical by the Indian government. The region's combined GDP reached approximately 67 trillion rupees as of 2019-20. How did a single peninsula accumulate this concentration of ecological richness, ancient commerce, literary heritage, and modern industry? What forces shaped the empires, the forests, the cities, and the languages that define it today?

• 2. Ancient Crossroads

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  Around 1000 BCE, iron technology spread across South India. Unlike many other ancient civilizations, the region shows no clear evidence of a fully developed Bronze Age preceding it. The peninsula occupied the center of a trade corridor running from Muziris on the western coast to Arikamedu on the east, linking the Mediterranean world to East Asia. The Sangam period, spanning roughly the 3rd century BCE to the 4th century CE, brought merchants from Phoenicia, Rome, Greece, Arabia, Syria, Jewish communities, and China into regular contact with the region. South India was woven into the ancient Silk Road.

  The Cheras governed from Karuvur, the Pandyas from Madurai, and the Cholas from Thanjavur, each ruling a distinct territory of the peninsula. The Pallavas were based at Kanchi, the Satavahanas at Amaravati, and the Chalukyas at Badami. The Hoysalas held Belur and the Kakatiyas ruled from Orugallu. From the 6th century BCE to the 14th century CE, these kingdoms shaped the region's culture, architecture, and territorial boundaries.

  In the 15th century, the Vijayanagara empire brought all of Southern India under a single authority, the last kingdom to do so. Repeated invasions from the Sultanate of Delhi gradually weakened it, and the empire fell in 1646. Power then fragmented among Deccan Sultanates, polygars, and Nayak governors who had declared independence from Vijayanagara rule. The Zamorins of Kozhikode had meanwhile controlled one of the western coast's busiest trading ports, positioning them directly in the path of the first European ships to arrive on the Malabar Coast.

• 3. Colonialism and Independence

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  By the middle of the 18th century, France and Britain were locked in a protracted struggle for military control across South India. The decisive moment came in 1799, when Tipu Sultan was defeated in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. The Vellore Mutiny ended in 1806, and Britain consolidated authority over most of present-day South India. The French retained their enclave at Pondicherry.

  The British East India Company administered the region until 1857, when the British Empire assumed direct control. South India was then organized into the Madras Presidency, Hyderabad State, Mysore, and the Madras States Agency. The independence movement drew on South India's active participation. Of the 72 delegates who attended the first session of the Indian National Congress at Bombay in December 1885-22 came from South India.

  After independence in 1947, the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 redrew state boundaries along linguistic lines. Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1968. Mysore State became Karnataka in 1973. The union territory of Puducherry was constituted in 1954, incorporating the former French enclaves of Pondicherry, Karaikal, Yanam, and Mahe. Telangana, the most recently formed state, was established on the 2nd of June 2014. It comprises ten districts from northwestern Andhra Pradesh, with Hyderabad as its capital. Chakravarti Rajagopalachari led the Congress to power in the Madras Presidency after the 1937 elections. He later became the first and only Indian to hold the post of Governor General. He served in that role until the position was abolished in January 1950.

• 4. Four Classical Languages

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  Tamil was the first language in India to receive classical status, granted by the Indian government in 2004. Telugu and Kannada followed in 2008, and Malayalam was recognized in 2013. Together, these four Dravidian languages represent a combined literary output exceeding that of all other literary languages of India combined. Of the four, Telugu has the most speakers: over 78 million as counted in the 2011 census. Tamil follows with over 68 million speakers, Kannada with over 42 million, and Malayalam with over 34 million.

  The Tholkappiyam, the oldest surviving grammatical treatise in the Tamil tradition, was produced during the Sangam period. That period, running from approximately 300 BCE to 300 CE, also produced the epics Silappatikaram and Manimekalai. Tamil poetry of the era was composed in three successive assemblies, known as Tamil Sangams. References to Kannada literature appear from the 4th century CE. Malayalam did not develop its own distinct literary tradition until the 13th century.

  The Dravidian language family as a whole encompasses approximately 73 languages. Among the secondary languages, Deccani Urdu is spoken widely in the interior, and Tulu is spoken along the Malabar Coast. Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu are among the 22 official languages of India. Ancient Tamil tradition holds that the earliest Sangam assemblies were held on a continent now vanished beneath the ocean. The tradition locates that sunken land far to the south of the present-day peninsula.

• 5. Landscape and Living World

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  Anaimudi, in the Anaimalai Hills of the Western Ghats, rises to 2,695 meters, making it the highest peak in South India. The Western Ghats run south from the Tapti river to Kanyakumari, forming a narrow coastal strip alongside the Arabian Sea. The Eastern Ghats run parallel to the Bay of Bengal but are discontinuous. Four rivers have cut through and divided them into separate segments: the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Krishna, and the Kaveri. Both mountain ranges meet at the Nilgiris, a crescent of hills running along the borders where Tamil Nadu meets northern Kerala and Karnataka.

  Below the mountain ranges, the Deccan Plateau rises from roughly 100 meters in the north to more than a kilometer in the south. Its basalt beds were formed during the Deccan Traps eruption. That event occurred between 67 and 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period. Because the plateau slopes gently from west to east, most major rivers drain into the Bay of Bengal rather than the Arabian Sea.

  The southwest monsoon, from June to September, delivers the bulk of the year's rainfall across the region. In low-lying areas, summer temperatures can exceed 50 degrees Celsius. Tamil Nadu and parts of southeastern Andhra Pradesh also receive rain from the northeast monsoon, which runs from November to early March.

  South India holds about one-third of India's tiger population. There are 14 Tiger reserves under Project Tiger and 11 Project Elephant reserves across the region. The Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve covers 10,500 square kilometers of ocean, islands, and coastline. It is home to endangered species including dolphins, dugongs, whales, and sea cucumbers. Among the species found in the Western Ghats and nowhere else are the Nilgiri tahr, the lion-tailed macaque, and the grizzled giant squirrel. A chain of low sandbars and islands known as Rama's Bridge links the peninsula to Sri Lanka across the Gulf of Mannar.

• 6. Economy and Infrastructure

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  The first proposal to build a railway in India was made in 1832 at Madras. By 1837, a track between Red Hills and Chintadripet in the city was operational. The first main southern line, from Royapuram in Madras to Arcot, opened on the 1st of July 1856. On the 14th of April 1951, three rail organizations merged to create Southern Railway, the first zone of Indian Railways.

  Aviation in the region began in 1915, when Tata Sons launched a regular airmail service between Karachi and Madras. On the 15th of October 1932, J. R. D. Tata flew a Puss Moth aircraft carrying mail from Karachi to Juhu aerodrome in Bombay. The aircraft continued to Madras, piloted by Neville Vincent, a former Royal Air Force pilot. Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru is now the busiest in the region, handling over 13.5 million passengers in the April-to-July 2024 period.

  South India hosts 109 operational Special Economic Zones as of March 2015, representing about 60% of the country's total. The automotive sector in Chennai accounts for roughly 35% of India's total automotive output. Coimbatore supplies two-thirds of India's requirements for motors and pumps. The region produces 92% of India's coffee and 85% of its natural rubber. Kerala and Tamil Nadu achieved the United Nations Millennium Development Goals related to maternal health and infant mortality by 2009. That placed them six years ahead of the 2015 deadline.

  ISRO, India's premier space agency, is headquartered in Bengaluru. Its facilities span the region, including research centers in Thiruvananthapuram and Tirupati and a test facility at Mahendragiri. Launch facilities operate at Sriharikota and Thiruvananthapuram, with tracking stations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Hassan. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bengaluru manufactures fighter aircraft and helicopters. Bharat Dynamics, based in Hyderabad, produces ammunition and missile systems.

• 7. Arts and Screen

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  On the 31st of October 1931, the first Tamil talkie, Kalidas, was released. It arrived barely seven months after Alam Ara, India's first sound film. Fifteen years earlier, R. Nataraja Mudaliar had directed Keechaka Vadham, South India's first silent film, in 1916. Mudaliar also established Madras's first film studio. As of 2014, South Indian film industries produce 53% of all feature films certified in India. In 2019 alone, Telugu cinema contributed 281 titles, Tamil 254, and Kannada 336.

  C. N. Annadurai, M. G. Ramachandran, M. Karunanidhi, N. T. Rama Rao, and Jayalalithaa each carried their public standing from film into political leadership. All five became chief ministers of South Indian states.

  Purandara Dasa and Tyagayya are among the composers whose work defines Carnatic music, the classical tradition of South India. Other significant composers include Kanaka Dasa, Annamacharya, Muthuswami Dikshitar, and Shyama Shastri. The Nadaswaram, a reed instrument typically accompanied by the thavil drum, anchors temple ceremonies and weddings across the region. Major classical dance forms include Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Mohiniaattam, and Yakshagana.

  South Indian temple architecture centers on the gopuram, a monumental tower at the entrance topped with a stone finial called the kalasam. The Pallavas, who built the group of monuments at Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram, established the gopuram's foundational form. The Cholas later expanded it. By the Pandya period in the 12th century, the gopuram had become the dominant feature of a temple's outer appearance. The temples at Mahabalipuram, Thanjavur, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, Darasuram, Hampi, and Pattadakal are all UNESCO World Heritage Sites. An exception stands at Thanjavur: the Brihadisvara Temple's vimanam, the tower over the inner sanctum, is actually larger than the gopurams at its entrance.

  Swamikannu Vincent built South India's first cinema studio, at Coimbatore. His earlier tent cinema in Madras had been billed as Edison's Grand Cinemamegaphone.