This is a survey of the diverse vernacular buildings of each region of India in their historical and traditional contexts. Whether creating family houses or village temples, grain stores or fine mansions, the Indian builder works according to ancient and sometimes religious practice, with whatever materials are to hand. The country's extraordinary range of buildings - mud-plastered, reed-thatched, timber-framed - is as varied as India's geography itself, from the cold dry Himalayas in the North and barren deserts in the West, to the sweltering bamboo groves and rice fields of the South.