The Vindhya Range

An old legend says this range once tried to grow taller than the Himalaya, then bowed down to a sage and never stood up straight again. That’s still the traditional line dividing North India from South India.

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Indian Geography · IndGeo0030

The Vindhya Range: India’s Traditional Divide

North India

Indo-Gangetic Plains

VINDHYA
↕

South India

Peninsular Plateau

~1,086 km

Gujarat to near Varanasi

300–650 m

Typical elevation

2 branches

Kaimur Range & southern branch

Why it’s so low

Legend says the Vindhya once grew taller each day out of envy of Mount Meru — until it bowed before the sage Agastya, and never stood up straight again.

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Must Know

• The Vindhya Range is a discontinuous chain of hills, ridges, and plateau escarpments across west-central India.
• It traditionally marks the boundary between the Indo-Gangetic Plains of North India and the Peninsular Plateau of South India.
• The range runs roughly 1,086 kilometres, from Gujarat across Madhya Pradesh to near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
• It forms the southern edge of the Malwa Plateau.
• The Vindhya Range is a distinct physiographic feature from the Vindhyan Rock System, the sedimentary rock formation named after it.

Good to Know

• The range splits into two branches further east: the Kaimur Range, running north of the Son river, and a southern branch running between the Son and Narmada rivers.
• That southern branch meets the Satpura Range at the Maikal Range, also called the Amarkantak Plateau.
• Its average elevation is modest, only 300 to 650 metres.
• The range’s highest point, Sad-bhawna Shikhar, or Goodwill Peak, reaches about 752 metres near Singrampur in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. The Vindhya Range traditionally marks the boundary between which two regions of India?

The Indo-Gangetic Plains of North India and the Peninsular Plateau of South India

The Thar Desert and the Deccan Plateau

The Himalaya and the Indo-Gangetic Plains

The Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats

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Great to Know

• Ancient Indian texts describe the Vindhya as the southern boundary of Aryavarta, marking off the Indo-Aryan heartland from lands further south.
• A well-known legend says the Vindhya once grew taller each day out of envy of Mount Meru, blocking sunlight from reaching the earth.
• The sage Agastya, asked to intervene, made the mountain bow before him — and it stayed bowed even after he left on a pilgrimage.
• The legend explains, in mythological terms, why the Vindhya’s peaks remain far lower than those of the Himalaya.