Tapti
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Tapti
One of the great rivers of Western India. The name is derived from tap, ' heat,' and the Tapti is said by the Brahmans to have been created by the sun to protect himself from his own warmth. The Tapti is believed to rise in the sacred tank of Multai (multapi, ' the source of the Tapti ') on the Satpura plateau, but its real source is two miles distant (21 degree 48' N. and 78° 15' E.). It flows in a westerly direction through the Betul District of the Central Provinces, at first traversing an open and partially cultivated plain, and then plunging into a rocky gorge of the Satpura Hills between the Kalibhit range in Nimar (Central Provinces) and Chikalda in Berar. Its bed here is rocky, overhung by steep banks, and bordered by forests. At a dis- tance of 120 miles from its source it enters the Nimar District of the Central Provinces, and for 30 miles more is still confined in a com- paratively narrow valley. A few miles above Burhanpur the valley opens out, the Satpura Hills receding north and south, and opposite that town the river valley has become a fine rich basin of alluvial soil about 20 nn'les wide. In the centre of this tract the Tapti flows between the towns of Burhanpur and Zainabad, and then passes into the Khandesh District of Bombay. In its upper valley are several basins of exceedingly rich soil ; but they have long been covered by forest, and it is only lately that the process of clearing them for cultiva- tion has been undertaken.
Shortly after entering Khandesh the Tapti receives on the left bank the Purna from the hills of Berar, and then flows for about 150 miles through a broad and fertile valley, bounded on the north by the Satpuras and on the south by the Satmalas. Farther on the hills close in, and the river descends through wild and wooded country for about 80 miles, after which it sweeps southwards to the sea through the alluvial plain of Surat District, becoming tidal for the last 30 miles of its course. The banks (30 to 60 feet) are too high for irrigation, while the bed is crossed at several places by ridges of rock, so that the river is navigable for only about 20 miles from the sea. The Tapti runs so near the foot of the Satpuras that its tribu- taries on the right bank are small ; but on the left bank, after its junction with the Purna, it receives through the Girna (150 miles long) the drainage of the hills of Baglan, and through the Bori, the Panjhra, and the Borai, that of the northern buttress of the Western Ghats. The waters of the Girna and the Panjhra are dammed up in several places and used for irrigation. On the lower course of the Tapti floods are not uncommon, and have at times done much damage to the city of Surat. The river is crossed at Bhusawal by the Jubbulpore branch of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, at Savalda by the Bombay-Agra road, and at Surat by the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway. The Tapti has a local reputa- tion for sanctity, the chief tirthas or holy places being Changdeo, at the confluence with the Puma, and Bodhan above Surat. The fort of Thalner and the city of Surat are the places of most historic note on its course, the total length of which is 436 miles. The port of Suvali (Swally), famous in early European commerce with India, and the scene of a famous sea-fight between the British and the Portuguese, lay at the mouth of the river, but is now deserted, its approaches having silted up.
