Place · Kanchi waterfall · India
Dassam Falls
The Kanchi river, a tributary of the Subarnarekha, falls 44 metres over a half-ring of granite ledges at Dassam, 40 kilometres southeast of Ranchi, in a classic plunge-pool waterfall that gives the place its name (Dassam from the Mundari dāsām, meaning ten streams, for the many parallel channels of the fall). The site is a sacred Munda-Oraon bathing-tirtha for the Sarhul spring festival and the picnic ground of weekend Ranchi; several drowning deaths each monsoon have made it the most feared swimming spot of the plateau. Pre-Mauryan microlithic tools recovered from the valley terraces around Dassam are among the oldest surface finds in the Ranchi district.
- Function
- Landscape & environmental change
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 23.146, 85.465
Connections (1)
- Site adjacencyHundru Falls
Dassam Falls on the Kanchi, Hundru Falls on the Subarnarekha, and Jonha Falls on the Raru are the three main waterfalls of the Ranchi plateau, within forty-five kilometres of one another and together forming the city's weekend circuit. All three belong to the same radial drainage of the central Chotanagpur plateau, falling off its edge toward the Ganga plain. The Munda-Oraon Sarhul and Baha spring festivals ritualise bathing in these waterfalls each April. Lodh Falls on the North Koel in Latehar is their larger cousin at 143 metres.
Sources
Standard reference.
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