MADRAS. A presidency of British India—officially styled Fort St. George—occupying, with its dependencies, the entire south of the Indian peninsula. The north boundary is extremely irregular. On the extreme north-east is the Bengal province of Orissa ; then the wild highlands of the Central Provinces ; next Hyderabad ; and, on the north-west, the Bombay districts of Dharwar and North Kanara. Mysore and Coorg lie within the bounds of Madras, and it includes the Laccadive islands, off the Malabar coast, in the Indian ocean. Its area, excluding native States, is 142,277 sq.m., and its population in 1931 was 46,740, 107. The capital is Madras (q.v.).
The Madras presidency may be con sidered broadly in three sections: (I) the high interior tableland, (2) the long and broad east coast, (3) the shorter and narrower west coast. The central plateau has a general elevation of L000 to 3,000ft. and includes the whole of Mysore and extends over about half a dozen districts of Madras. It is composed essentially of very ancient granitic and gneissic rocks, which shelve sharply down to the coastal lands on either side, forming the eastern and western Ghats (q.v.) respectively. In Bellary and Anantapur districts, as well as in Mysore and Hyderabad, several long and narrow strips of a later formation, known as the Dharwar system, are folded or faulted into the gneissic floor. They run from north north-west to south-south-east and consist of conglomerates, lavas and schists. These beds contain gold, the Kolar goldfield in Mysore being important. The gneissic and Dharwar rocks are overlaid unconformably by the sandstones, limestones. shales. etc., of the Cuddapah and Kurnool series. In the latter series most of the diamonds of southern India are found. Anaimundi mountain (8,837ft.) in Travancore is the highest in southern India. The Nilgiri hills, which join the Ghats, culminate in Doda betta (8,76oft.). There are also many outlying spurs and tangled masses of hills, of which the Shevaroys, Anamalais and Palnis are the most important.
the areas let down by faults there are strips of Gondwana beds, and their softer rocks have helped the growth of river valleys. Such a strip is associated with the Godavari valley. The Godavari, Kistna and Cauvery rivers, each with a large tributary system, rise in the western Ghats, cross the peninsula and reach the bay of Bengal over alluvial deltas which extend over long stretches on the east coast. Marine cretaceous deposits are found in three detached areas, near Trichinopoly, Viruddhachalam and Pondicherry. On the west coast are a series of backwaters or lagoons, fringing the sea-board of Kanara, Malabar and Travancore. The largest is the backwater of Cochin, which ex tends 120M. from north to south. Some of the coastal sandstones may be of late Tertiary age, but fossils of that period are only in a few patches on the west coast, as at Quilon in Travancore.
The climate varies in accordance with the height of the mountain chain on the western coast. Where this chain is lofty, as between Malabar and Coimbatore, the rainclouds are checked and give a rainfall of 15oin. on the side of the sea, and only loin. on the landward side. Where the range is lower, the rainclouds pass over the hills and carry their moisture to the interior districts. The Nilgiri hills enjoy the climate of the tem perate zone, with a moderate rainfall. The Malabar coast has a rainfall of i5oin., and the clouds on the western Ghats sometimes obscure the sun for months at a time. Along the eastern coasts and central table-lands the rainfall is low and the heat excessive. At Madras the average rainfall, 5o in., is above the mean.
The mineral wealth is undeveloped. Excellent iron has been smelted by native smiths from time immemorial; but European methods have proved unsuccessful. Coal exists, but is not worked. The manganese of Vizagapatam and mica of Nellore are the only minerals extensively produced. Gold and silver are obtained at Anantapur, magnesite at Salem, barytes at Kurnool, and bauxite on the Malabar coast and at Vizagapatam.