For Sarkár read (passim) Sirkar.
THE word Berár signifies now, politically and geographically, the
districts which have been assigned by His Highness the Nizám to the
British Government under the treaties of 1853 and 1861, though it has
had different meanings at different periods, as the historical chapter
will show. The actual position and boundaries of the existing province
are marked on the map annexed to this Gazetteer. Berár forms the
northernmost portion of the Haidarábád State, running up from the
south with a breadth gradually narrowing until an extreme point
touches the Tapti river, half-surrounded on the east, north, and north-
west by the Central Provinces, and meeting the Khándesh district of
the Bombay Presidency along a section of about forty miles of its
western border. The Gáwilgarh hills-a range belonging to the Satpura
mountains-form the geographical boundary of Berár on the north, with
a deep indent made by the Melghát tract; on the east its frontier is
marked accurately by the Wardha river down to its confluence with
the Painganga, and on the south by the Painganga for about two-
thirds of the frontier's length. From the map it might be guessed
that these convenient water-lines are natural and ancient provincial
boundaries, yet they were both marked out by very recent treaties:
thus illustrating rather remarkably the general rule that a frontier
which follows river-courses is always political and comparatively modern.
On the west the border of Berár is merely an artificial line cutting
across a broad valley from the Sátpura mountains to the hills on which
stands Ajanta, and proceeding southward over these hills until it turns
eastward by a sharp angle near Jálna. This Ajanta range intersects
the whole province from west to east, and its steep ridge divides the
interior geography into two systems. Setting aside the Melghat moun-
tain tract as abnormal, we have two distinct sections of Berár-the
Payanghát or lowland country, bounded on the north by the Gáwilgarh
hills, and on the south by the outer scarps of the Ajanta range; and the
Bálághát or upland country above the Ajanta ridge, sloping down
southward beyond the gháts or passes which lead up it. So that the
Páyanghát is a wide valley running up eastward between this ridge