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GODAVARI RIVER
and WAINGANGA ; and from this point it takes a marked south-easterly
bend, and for about loo miles divides Chânda District and the Bastar
Feudatory State o£ the Central Provinces from the Karïmnagar and
Warangal Districts of Hyderâbâd. Thirty miles below the confluence
of the Pranhita, the Godavari receives the Indrâvati river from Bastar
State and lower down the Tal. The bed of the Godâvari where it
adjoins the Central Provinces is broad and sandy, from one to two
miles in width, and broken by rocks at only two points, called the First
and Second Barriers, each about i 5 miles long. In 1854 it was pro-
posed to,remove these barriers, and a third one on the Pranhita, with
the object of making a waterway from the cotton-growing Districts of
Nagpur and Wardha to the sea; but in 1871, after very considerable
sums had been expended, the project was finally abandoned as im-
practicable. One of the dams erected in connexion with this project
still stands, with its locks and canal, at Dummagudem in the north of
the Godâvari District of Madras. Although the Godâvari only skirts
the Central Provinces, it is one of the most important rivers in their
drainage system, as it receives through the Wardhâ and Waingangâ
the waters of a portion of the Satpura plateau and of the whole of
the Nagpur plain.
Some distance below Sironcha the Godâvari leaves the Central Pro-
vinces behind, and for a while forms the boundary between the Goda-
vari District of the Madras Presidency and the Hyderâbâd State; and
in this part of its course it is joined on the left bank by a considerable
tributary, the Sabarï. Thence it flows to the sea through the centre of
the old Godavari District, which has recently been divided, mainly by
the course of the river, into the two Districts of Godâvari and Kistna.
At the beginning of its course along Madras territory, the river flows
placidly through a flat and somewhat monotonous country, but shortly
afterwards it begins to force its way through the Eastern Ghats and a
sudden change takes place. The banks become wild and mountainous,
the stream contracts, and at length the whole body of the river pours
through a narrow and very deep passage known as `the Gorge,' on
either side of which the picturesque wooded slopes of the hills rise
almost sheer from the dark water. Once through the hills, the river
again opens out and forms a series of broad reaches dotted with low
alluvial islands (lankas), which are famous for the tobacco they produce.
The current here is nowhere rapid. At Rajahmundry, where the river
is crossed by the East Coast line of the Madras Railway on a bridge
more than 12 miles in length, it varies from 4 to 11 feet a second. In
floods, however, the Godavari brings down an enormous volume of
water, and embankments on both of its banks are necessary to prevent
it from inundating the surrounding country.
A few miles below Râjahrnundry the river divides into two main
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