<P> The Deccan region has historically lacked an enduring geo - political centre, and has been defined in various ways . Geographers have attempted to define it using indices such as rainfall, vegetation, soil type or physical features . When considering physical features, it is taken to be the area bounded by the Narmada River, the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats . The 16th - century historian Firishta defined Deccan as the territory inhabited by the native speakers of Kannada, Marathi, and Telugu languages . Richard M. Eaton (2005) also settled on this linguistic definition . </P> <P> The Western Ghats mountain range is very tall and blocks the moisture from the southwest monsoon from reaching the Deccan Plateau, so the region receives very little rainfall . The eastern Deccan Plateau is at a lower elevation spanning the southeastern coast of India . Its forests are also relatively dry but serve to retain the rain to form streams that feed into rivers that flow into basins and then into the Bay of Bengal . </P> <P> Most Deccan plateau rivers flow south . Most of the northern part of the plateau is drained by the Godavari River and its tributaries, including the Indravati River, starting from the Western Ghats and flowing east towards the Bay of Bengal . Most of the central plateau is drained by the Tungabhadra River, Krishna River and its tributaries, including the Bhima River, which also run east . The southernmost part of the plateau is drained by the Kaveri River, which rises in the Western Ghats of Karnataka and bends south to break through the Nilgiri Hills at the island town of Shivanasamudra and then falls into Tamil Nadu at Hogenakal Falls before flowing into the Stanley Reservoir and the Mettur Dam that created the reservoir, and finally emptying into the Bay of Bengal . </P> <P> The climate of the region varies from semi-arid in the north to tropical in most of the region with distinct wet and dry seasons . Rain falls during the monsoon season from about June to October . March to June can be very dry and hot, with temperatures regularly exceeding 40 ° C. The Deccan plateau is a topographically variegated region located south of the Gangetic plains - the portion lying between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal - and includes a substantial area to the north of the Satpura Range, which has popularly been regarded as the divide between northern India and the Deccan . The name derives from the Sanskrit daksina ("south"). The plateau is bounded on the east and west by the Ghats, while its northern extremity is the Vindhya Range . The Deccan's average elevation is about 2,000 feet (600 m), sloping generally eastward; its principal rivers, the Godavari, Krishna, and Cauvery, flow from the Western Ghats eastward to the Bay of Bengal . The plateau's climate is drier than that on the coasts and is arid in places . Although sometimes used to mean all of India south of the Narmada River, the word Deccan relates more specifically to that area of rich volcanic soils and lava - covered plateaus in the northern part of the peninsula between the Narmada and Krishna rivers . </P>

Where do most of the rivers on the deccan plateau flow to