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Indo-Gangetic Plain
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Image:IndoGangeticPlain Map.png right|250px|
The '''Indo-Gangetic Plain''' is a rich, fertile and ancient land encompassing most of northern and eastern
India, the most populous parts of
Pakistan, and virtually all of
Bangladesh. The Plains get their names from the rivers
Ganges and
Indus River Indus.
It stretches from:
* Kashmir in the north;
* the
Punjab (Pakistan) Punjab region of Pakistan and
Aravalli Range,
Rajasthan in the west; and
*
Himalayan foothills in the east and the
Deccan Plateau in the south.
The fertile
Terai region is the
Nepalese extension of the Plain.
The rivers encompassed are the Ganga (
Ganges River Ganges),
Indus River Indus,
Beas River Beas,
Yamuna River Yamuna,
Gomti River Gomti,
Ravi River Ravi,
Chambal River Chambal,
Sutlej River Sutlej,
Chenab River Chenab. The soil is rich in silt, making the plain one of the most intensely farmed areas of the world. Even rural areas here are densely populated.
Farming on the Indo-Gangetic Plain primarily consists of
rice and
wheat grown in
crop rotation rotation. Other crops include
maize,
sugarcane, and
cotton. The main source of rainfall is the southwest
monsoon, which is normally sufficient for agriculture except for occasional droughts. The many rivers flowing out of the Himalayas provide water for major irrigation works.
The region is also known for the
Indus Valley Civilisation and is responsible for the birth of ancient India. The flat and fertile terrain has facilitated the repeated rise and expansion of empires, including
Magadha and the
Maurya empire, the
Gupta empire,
Kanauj, the
Sultanate of Delhi, and the
Mughal Empire, all of which had their demographic and political centres in the Indo-Gangetic plain. Both British and independent India also have their centres here (in first
Calcutta and then
New Delhi).
The languages of the Indo-Gangetic plain are overwhelmingly
Indo-Aryan languages Indo-Aryan; today,
Hindi,
Urdu (and spoken
Hindustani)and
Bengali are the major lingua francas of this region. There is in addition a great variety of regional languages, which in several cases form a
dialect chain with one another. Both
Hinduism and
Islam are extremely well established here; the Indo-Gangetic plain is also the birthplace of
Sikhism,
Buddhism, and
Jainism.
Among the largest cities of the Indo-Gangetic plain are
Kolkata,
Delhi,
Karachi,
Dhaka,
Rawalpindi-
Islamabad,
Ahmedabad,
Lucknow,
Ludhiana,
Kanpur, and
Patna.
Category:Geography of India Category:Geography of Pakistan Category:Geography of Bangladesh
Category:Plains
da:Indus-Gangessletten
fr:Plaine Indo-Gangétique
pl:Nizina Hindustańska
sk:Indogangská nížina
{{GeoSouthAsia}}
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Indo-Gangetic plain
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