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CAUVERY, or KAVERI

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 560 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CAUVERY, or KAVERI , a See also:river of See also:southern See also:India. Rising in See also:Coorg, high up amid the Western See also:Ghats, in 12° 25' N. See also:lat. and 75° 34 E. See also:long., it flows with a See also:general See also:south-eastern direction across the See also:plateau of See also:Mysore, and finally pours itself into the See also:Bay of See also:Bengal through two See also:principal mouths in See also:Tanjore See also:district. Its See also:total length is 472 m., the estimated See also:area of its See also:basin 27,700 sq. m. The course of the river in Coorg is very tortuous. Its See also:bed is generally rocky; its See also:banks are high and covered with luxuriant vegetation. On entering Mysore it passes through a narrow See also:gorge, but presently widens to an See also:average breadth of 300 to 400 yds. Its bed continues rocky, so as to forbid all See also:navigation; but its banks are here bordered with a See also:rich See also:strip of cultivation. In its course through Mysore the channel is interrupted by twelve anicuts or dams for the purpose of See also:irrigation. From the most important of these, known as the Madadkatte, an artificial channel is led to a distance of 72 m., irrigating an area of 10,000 acres, and ultimately bringing a See also:water-See also:supply into the See also:town of Mysore. In Mysore See also:state the Cauvery forms the two islands of See also:Seringapatam and Sivasamudram, which See also:vie in sanctity with the See also:island of Seringam See also:lower down in See also:Trichinopoly district. Around the island of Sivasamudram are the celebrated falls of the Cauvery, unrivalled for romantic beauty. The river here branches into two channels, each of which makes a descent of about 200 M.

C =a FIG. I. c=o FIG. 2. c=%a FIG. 3. in a See also:

succession of rapids and broken cascades. After entering the See also:Madras See also:presidency, the Cauvery forms the boundary between the See also:Coimbatore and See also:Salem districts, until it strikes into Trichinopoly district. Sweeping past the historic See also:rock of Trichinopoly, it breaks at the island of Seringam into two channels, which enclose between them the See also:delta of Tanjore, the See also:garden of southern India. The See also:northern channel is called the Coleroon (Kolidam); the other preserves the name of Cauvery. On the seaward See also:face of its delta are the open roadsteads of See also:Negapatam and See also:French See also:Karikal. The only navigation on any portion of its course is carried on in boats of See also:basket-See also:work.

It is in the delta that the real value of the river for irrigation becomes conspicuous. This is the largest delta See also:

system, and the most profitable of all the See also:works in India. The most See also:ancient irrigation work is a massive See also:dam of unhewn See also:stone, io8o ft. long, and from 40 to 6o ft. broad, across the stream of the Cauvery proper, which is supposed to date back to the 4th See also:century, is still in excellent repair, and has supplied a See also:model to See also:British See also:engineers. The area of the ancient system was 669,000 acres, the See also:modern about I,00o,000 acres. The See also:chief modern work is the anicut across the Coleroon, 2250 ft. long, constructed by See also:Sir See also:Arthur See also:Cotton between 1836 and 1838. The Cauvery Falls have been utilized for an electric See also:installation, which supplies See also:power to the See also:Kolar See also:gold-mines and See also:light to the See also:city of Mysore. The Cauvery is known to devout See also:Hindus as Dakshini Ganga, or the See also:Ganges of the south, and the whole of its course is See also:holy ground. According to the See also:legend there was once See also:born upon See also:earth a girl named Vishnumaya or Lopamudra, the daughter of Brahma; but her divine See also:father permitted her to be regarded as the See also:child of a mortal, called Kavera-muni. In See also:order to obtain beatitude for her adoptive father, she resolved to become a river whose See also:waters should purify from all See also:sin. Hence it is that even the holy Ganges resorts underground once in the See also:year to the source of the Cauvery, to • purge herself from the pollution contracted from the See also:crowd of sinners who have bathed in her waters.

End of Article: CAUVERY, or KAVERI

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