ABSTRACT
A geographical study of Indian house-types would be a work vast in scope and rich in instruction. Some general remarks on the villages and their life seem desirable, although settlement patterns, house-types, and so on are treated in some detail in the regional chapters. In the Assam–Burma Ranges defence is also an important factor: villages are on hilltops or spurs, often stockaded; it must be remembered that in these jungly hills the valleys are extremely malarial, and the communication is easiest along relatively open ridgeways. The aspect of the village varies not only with the general regional setting, with building materials and house-types, but with social factors. No one village can be typical of the whole sub-continent; but many of the features can be paralleled over and over again in most parts of India. Most Indian cities have not separated residential and other functions to the same extent as Occidental towns.
