An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c19.s1.26

v1.c19.s1.26

Following Spate, 1957, Subbarao, 1958, grouped the whole of the country into areas of attraction, isolation and relative isolation. Although it is true that the major agricultural areas of the country have always been major settlement zones it does not follow that all these regions simultaneously moved along the path of progress or that the relatively infertile areas were always out of the main line of the country's development. The status of 'area of isolation' may of course be attached to broken and hilly terrains, but even here it would not be logical to ignore the fact that many of the so-called isolated areas were linked to the main economic stream of the country because of their importance as a supplier of various raw materials in many cases (cf. the Chota Nagpur plateau). Subbarao's categorization of different areas does not really help in the understanding of the settlement pattern or history of India.