Ghats

or Ghauts, Eastern and Western, two converging ranges of mountains, which run parallel with the KE. and W. coasts of Southern India, and meet at Cape Camorin, enclosing the ocean. The name Ghats is also applied to the flights of steps, whether intended as landing places or as bathing stairs, which line the river banks in towns and places of pilgrimage in Northern and Central India. Most great rivers, and especially the Ganges, po e many ghats; but they are also built on the margins of lakes, as at Pushkar and Sagar, or even of tanks. The uniformity of the long lines of steps is often broken by shrines or temples, built either close to the water’s edge or at the top; and on these steps are concentrated the pastimes of the idler, the duties of the devout, and much of the nece ary intercourse of busine .