ABSTRACT
The aphorism, 'nature proposes, man disposes' is applicable to South Asia. Nature - the result in this case of the interplay between plate tectonics and meteorology - has proposed a geo-political region. Within that region, the size of the population, the undogmatic qualities of its ancient theologies, and the time elapsed between external human shocks, has resulted in a unique and evolving continuity of culture despite the detailed complexity of society and regional variation. The details and variation are important, but to use a ceramic analogy, they form the finely patterned cracks in the glaze of an old, cracked, plate - yet the plate exists.
