Villageography: A Proposed Framework for the Comprehensive Study of a Village

Abstract

This paper proposes villageography as a practical term for a systematic, multidisciplinary and evidence-based account of a single village. It defines the term, distinguishes it from a gazetteer entry, census profile, land record and local history, and presents a ten-domain framework covering identity, physical geography, people, history, government, land, economy, public services, culture and development. Som Kumar Sharma independently formulated this comprehensive village-study meaning and framework in 2026. The paper also notes an earlier unrelated literary-context use of the spelling in 2023 and therefore does not claim the first-ever appearance of the letter sequence.