CAUVERY, a river of southern India. Rising in Coorg, high up amid the Western Ghats, in 12° 25' N. lat. and 34' E. long., it flows generally south-east across the plateau of Mysore, and finally enters the bay of Bengal through two principal mouths in Tanjore district. Its length is 472 m. Its course in Coorg is tor tuous, and its bed generally rocky with high banks covered with luxuriant vegetation. On entering Mysore it passes through a nar row gorge, but presently widens to a breadth of 30o to 400 yd. The bed is too rocky for navigation. In its course through My sore the channel is interrupted by a number of anicuts or dams for irrigation. In Mysore state the Cauvery forms the two islands of Seringapatam and Sivasamudram, which vie in sanctity with the island of Seringam lower down in Trichinopoly district. Around the island of Sivasamudram are the celebrated falls of the Cau very, where the river branches into two channels, each of which makes a descent of about 32o ft. After entering the Madras pres idency, the Cauvery forms the boundary between the Coimbatore and Salem districts, until it reaches Trichinopoly district. Sweep ing past the historic rock of Trichinopoly, it breaks at the island of Seringam into two channels, which enclose between them the delta of Tanjore, the garden of southern India. The northern channel is called the Coleroon (Kolidam). On the seaward face of its delta are the open roadsteads of Negapatam and French Kari kal. The only navigation on any portion of its course is carried on in boats of basket-work. There is an extensive irrigation system in the delta. The most ancient work is a massive dam of unhewn stone, across the stream of the Cauvery proper, which is supposed to date back to the 4th century, but is still in excellent repair. The chief modern work is the anicut across the Coleroon, 2,25o ft. long, which irrigates an area of some 600,000 acres. Alto gether a total of about a million acres are irrigated from the Cau very, and the Cauvery falls have been utilized for an electric power plant, which supplies power to the Kolar goldmines and light and power to Bangalore and Mysore.
The Cauvery is known to devout Hindus as Dakshini Ganga, or the Ganges of the south, and the whole of its course is holy ground. The Cauvery reservoir project, which will largely improve and ex tend the irrigation facilities, was sanctioned in 1925. It will include a dam at Metur and a canal 88 m. long.