Madhya Pradesh(1) in the center of India(2) consists of nearly 300 thousand square kilometers. The land consists of plateaus and low mountains cut through on the west by the Narmada valley. Immediately north of the valley is the Vindhya Range and south of it, the Satpuras. Beyond the Vindhyas is the Malwa Plateau(3), which is penetrated by the Mahi, Chambal, Parhati, Betwa and Ken Rivers. East of the Ken is the Bhander Plateau, and further east--north of the Son River--is the furthest extent of the Vindhyas: the Kaimur Range. The Satpuras continue as the Mahadeo Hills, but the east-west pattern terminates near the source of the Narmada with the north-south Maikala Range. South of the Satpuras, the upper course of the Tapti separates off the Gawilgarh Hills, which straddle the Maharashtra border. In Madhya Pradesh's southeast the upper Wainganga curls between the Mahadeo Hills and the Maikala Range.
Nearly 65 million people live here (2007). Perhaps nearly 11 in 20 speak Hindi dialects(4); perhaps more than one in five speak Rajasthani languages(5) like Malvi and Nimadi; the rest speak a miscellany of Central Indo-Aryan, Munda and Central Dravidian languages.
Nearly 19 in 20 are Hindus.
There are three cities with a million or more residents: Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur.
Prior to the Indo-Aryans the land, or at least eastern parts of it, was inhabited by speakers of Munda and Central Dravidian languages; some remains as minorities today.
By the beginning of the first millenium C.E., the Ajivika religion was gone, and this area had a mix of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, especially the first two. The Iranian groups that conquered parts of the north of this area, the Sakas, and Kusanas, did not change this mix, which persisted into the second millenium.
Meanwhile, in the early second millenium, the Hindi dialects evolved.
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(1) Pradesh means state.
(2) Bharat is its Hindi name, in transliteration.
(3) The plateau embraces the highlands of the state's west, so it really includes the Vindhyas and the Satpuras.
(4) Some pople would consider some of them to be separate languages.
(5) Some linguists count Rajasthani as a language instead of a group; others count all Rajasthani languages as Hindi dialects.