India is a land rich in contrasts and diversity. It's only logical that a region as large as the Indian subcontinent would have a wide range of physical characteristics. The extremes of India's physical and human topography are indeed tremendous. The Plateau, located in the south, is one of the world's oldest and least disturbed geographical formations. Since their origin in the pre-cambrian epoch about 3,000 million years ago, their rocks have been extensively covered by sea. The Himalayan mountain ranges and the Great Plains, on the other hand, are the most recent landforms. These disparities have become even more pronounced as a result of denudational processes. 

The peninsular plateau has old and senile topography with gently rising ridges and vast valleys, whereas the mountain ranges in the north have relatively youthful topography with high peaks and steep-sided valleys. The Aravallis and the Himalayas are the world's oldest and youngest mountain ranges, respectively. Even in recently formed landforms, the contrasts are apparent. From north to south, it takes only a few hundred kilometres to travel from the world's highest mountain to the flat, featureless, and monotonous plains.

Even the rivers of the Himalayan and Peninsular regions have distinct personalities. The Himalayan Rivers originate in the snow-covered mountains. As a result of snowmelt, they obtain water even during the dry season and are perennial. In contrast, rivers in the Peninsular Plateau exclusively carry rainwater, and the amount of water carried by them reduces significantly during the dry season. As a result, they are referred to as seasonal rivers. Furthermore, the Peninsular Plateau's rivers have matured, whilst the Himalayan Rivers are still in their infancy. Sedimentary rocks make up the majority of the Himalayan region, but igneous and metamorphic rocks dominate the Peninsular Plateau. 

One of the world's largest alluvial plains is sandwiched between the Himalayas in the north and the Peninsular Plateau in the south. This huge plain, which stretches from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal in a large curve, is made up of highly fertile soils that have been carried down by streams and rivers for thousands of years.