ABSTRACT
When the southwest monsoon sweeps up from the Indian Ocean in June, it brings welcome relief and renewal to communities across southern Asia. In India's southwestern state of Kerala, the abundant rain produces a region of canals, coconuts and rice fields of green. The weather fronts continue eastwards, but only just make it past the Western Ghats, a north–south range of hills stretching along the border of Tamil Nadu up through Karnataka. Beyond these hills, life on the same latitude is remarkably different. For here are some of the driest areas outside formal deserts on the continent. This is the land of the former Dravidian kingdoms with their ornate temples, and it centres on Madurai, which the Pandyas made their capital more than 2000 years ago. A thousand years later, it fell to the Chola emperors, was later regained by the Pandyas and was lost to a general from the Delhi Sultanate, who in turn was overthrown by the Hindu Vijayanagar kings. Finally, the Nayals overthrew them in 1585, and ruled for 216 years until the arrival of the British East India Company.
