Mahabharat Lekh

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The Mahabharat Lekh or Range is a major mountain range in Nepal, also called the Lesser Himalaya and extending into India both east and west of Nepal under different names. The Mahabharat Range runs parallel to and south of the Himalayan range at a distance of about 100 kilometers and is generally 1,500 to 3,000 meters high. It has a steep southern slope called the "Main Frontal Thrust" by geologists, and gentler northern slopes.

The steep southern slopes are largely uninhabited, essentially a no-man's land separating near-tropical lowlands and hilly jungles from the subtropical-to-temperate "Middle Hills".

The lower terrain south of the southern escarpment was originally malarial and populated by Tharus and other relatively aboriginal peoples who evolved or acquired a degree of immunity. To the extent that malaria could be suppressed, avoided or coped with, this zone has received immigration from the adjacent North Indian Plains, largely speakers of Hindi in the west grading into Bhojpuri in the center and Maithili in the east.

The inhabited zone from the Mahabharat crest northward to the limit of intensive agriculture at about 2,500 meters elevation is known as the "Middle Hills". Aboriginals in this zone are various ethnic groups of Tibeto-Burman affinities including Magar, Gurung, Tamang, Rai and Limbu. "Paharis" of Indo-european affinities are the relative newcomers, having arrived perhaps a thousand years ago in the far west and progressively more recently eastward. Paharis of the higher Brahman ("Bahun") and Kshatriya ("Chhetri") castes dominate the country politically but share power to some extent with Newars, an urbanized Tibeto-Burman group native to the Kathmandu region. So the Middle Hills can be considered the heartland of Nepal, and the Mahabharat Range can be likened to a picket fence marking the southern boundary of this important region.

The Mahabharat Range is also an important hydrographic barrier that is crossed by relatively few rivers. Drainage systems have evolved candelabra configurations with numerous tributaries flowing south from the Himalaya through the Middle Hills, collecting immediately north of the Mahabharat Range and cutting through it in major gorges as the Karnali in the west, the Gandaki or Narayani in central Nepal, and the Kosi in the east.