ABSTRACT
Nussbaum’s view of cosmopolitanism is through the lens of social and political philosophy, as an essentially moral imperative underpinned by rationality and liberalism. It influenced the creation of the universal declaration of the rights of man and later the United Nations charter, the universal declaration of human rights, amongst many international covenants between nation-states. The particular terrain found in the region also had another dimension – providing a corridor of connectivity with peninsular India. Movement – of travellers, monks, pilgrims, traders, soldiers, poets, philosophers, bearing their ideas and ideologies – was the byword for the region. The flow of people through the area required the constant negotiation of diversity, of thought and action. Water as an essential resource has been carefully tapped, its storage and usage meticulously monitored and controlled. Its value as a symbol of sacrality is a factor of its strategic significance for the region in the way that it infuses local myths, legends and folklore.
