ABSTRACT
The independent pioneer work of J. N. L. Baker and L. D. Stamp resulted in a remarkably close agreement on a working regional division of India. Structure is perhaps the most obvious guide, at any rate on the macro-scale; since the divisions are as a rule either too broad or too much a matter of local detail, such as the distinction between bet and doab, khadar and bhangar. These may be of great importance in local life, but are in practice useless as bases for regional description on a subcontinental scale–and in descriptive writing, scale is of the essence. Many regional studies, and many more studies of the sub-continental distributions of specific phenomena, will be needed before that division can be drawn which satisfies the greatest number of criteria while doing least violence to any one of the fundamentals. In such a vast area, some sort of division other than micro-morphological must be made though obviously in an open plain climatic transition are also gradual.
