Chhattisgarh is in north India(1) and comprises 146 thousand square kilometers of the Deccan lava plateau. There are four bands of relative elevations. Along the northwest border with Madhya Pradesh(2) is a high band that includes the Maikala Range and the western end of the Hazaribaghs(3), with heights above 1,000 meters. The source of the Rihand River(4) flows down the north slopes. South of the high band is the western end of the Chhattisgarh Plaqin, which centers on the headwaters of the Mahanadi: the river proper toward the south; the Seonath, west; and the Hasdo, north. Further south is another high band, above 1,100 meters, only somewhat interrupted by the Indravati River, which cuts westward across the state, and its right bank tributary, the Kotri. In the very south is the Godavari River basin, though the river itself barely touches the state's southwest.
About 22 million people live here(5). A probably majority speak Chhattisgarhi(6). The most important linguistic minorities speak Northern Gondi, Marathi, Hindi(7) and Kurukh(8).
The state is overwhelmingly Hindu(9).
There is one metropolitan area with at least a million residents, Bhilai.
Before the Indo-Aryans arrived, the area's inhabitants were probably a mix of Northern and Central Dravidians. The Kurukh are a current Northern group; the Gondi, a Central one. The religion of the non-Hindu Gonds today provides a clue to the older Dravidian religions. Thy have a distant high god, hereditary priests who officiate at village ceremonies, and diviners and magicians.
Indo-Aryans probably arrived in this area about 2,000 years ago, bringing Hinduism with them. Perhaps they also brought Buddhism and Jainism that early--certainly they were prominent around a millenium ago(10). But by then Jainism was declining in the area, and Buddhism followed suit.
north
northeast
southeast
south
west, from the south
northwest
(1) Its other official name is transliterated as Bharat.
(2) Pradesh translates from Hindi as state.
(3) Or Ramgarh Hills.
(4) A tributary of the Son, which flows to the Ganga (Ganges).
(5) 2005 estimate in www.world-gazetteer.com, accessed 6/25/2005.
(6) www.ethnologue.com, accessed 2/5/2007, says there were 11.5 million speakers India-wide in 1997. I'm guessing that almost all of them were in Chhattisgarh, and the area's population in 1997 was between 17.6 million (1991) and 20.8 million (2001), and therefore the majority spoke Chhattisgarhi. The Indian government considered the language as Hindi, and so its 1991 census of Madhya Pradesh, which then included this area, is of no help. Weighing against my assessment is the estimate of only seven million world-wide speakers of Chhattisgarhi given in Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of Languages (Columbia Unviersity Press, 1998), although his statement about its district distribution stengthens my belief that the speakers are nearly all in this area. The Indian government's creation of a state also bolsters my opinion, since linguistic states are the nation's norm.
(7) Here, Hindi excludes Chhattisgarhi, but includes 'eastern dialects'. The source for my assessment is Joseph E. Schwartzberg, ed., A Historical Atlas of South Asia (University of Chicago Press, 1978), Plates X.B.1 and X.B.2.
(8) Also spelled Kurux.
(9) Schwartzberg, ibid. Comparing plate X.A.1 (1931) and X.A.2 (1961) shows the south end of the state changing from majority 'tribal' to 99% Hindu.
(10) Schwartzberg, ibid., Plate IV.4.