ARAVALLI HILLS
4or
Aravalli Hills.-The Arcvalad or Araza/i (literally, the 'hills which
form a barrier or which wind about'; the word ard or ddd meaning
both 'barrier' and 'crooked' or 'winding') have been identified as the
apocopi montes, deorumr poena appellati of Ptolemy, and the Paripatra
of the Vishnu Purana. They intersect Rajputana almost from end to
end by a line running nearly north-east and south-west. This line may
be said to divide the sandy country on the north and west from the
kindlier soil on the south and east, though, as the range breaks up, its
correspondence with any such division of characteristics becomes, of
course, less and less distinct. For, whereas from Abu north-east to
Ajmer the unbroken range stands like a barricade, and effectively pro-
tects the country behind it from the influx of sand, beyond Ajmer again
to the north-east, although the general elevation and run of the ridges
have to some extent checked the spread of sand from the west, yet
it has drifted through many openings and intervals among the hills, and
has overlaid large tracts on the eastern side of the line. In this way,
the Aravallis may be said to represent a coast-line, partly fenced by high
cliffs and partly an irregular shore pierced by bays and inlets, against
which the sea of sand flows up continually from the shelving plains
of the west. Roughly speaking, about three-fourths of Rajputana lie
north-west of the Aravallis, leaving two-fifths on the south-east.
Taking the range from the north-east, its first appearance on a large
scale is near Khetri (28° N. and 75° 47' E.), in the north of the Jaipur
State, though detached peaks may be traced at long intervals almost to
the well-known Ridge at Delhi. Near the village of Babai it attains an
altitude of 2,594 feet above the level of the sea, and then, trending in
a south-west direction, displays the higher groups of Kho (3,212 feet),
Raghunathgarh (3,450 feet), and the sacred mount of Harasnath
(2,968 feet), in the Sikar estate. Thence, skirting the western limit
of the Sambhar Lake, it continues in the same direction to Ajmer,
where it begins to widen out considerably, and several parallel ranges
appear. One of the most conspicuous peaks in this neighbourhood
is that on which stands the famous fort of Taragarh, overlooking Ajmer
city from a height of 2,855 feet above sea-level. About io miles from
Ajmer the hills disappear for a short distance; but in the neighbour-
hood of Beawar a compact double range appears, separating the plains
of Marwar from the upland country of Mewar. From near Beawar
south-west for about 70 miles the strip of hill-country enclosed by the
Aravallis is called Merwara from the peculiar tribe of Mers which
inhabit it; and the highest hill is that known as Nathji or Goram,
a little to the south-west of Todgarh, 3,075 feet above the sea.
Beyond Merwara the range varies in breadth from 25 to 30 miles,
and may be described as an intricate mass of hills, from among which
rise lofty ridges, elevated here and there to 4,000 feet above sea-level,
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