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Which countries are included in South Asian arts?

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Watch and hear a person playing the mridangam drum of the Carnatic music tradition — South Asian arts The *mridangam*, the principal drum of the Carnatic music tradition.

In the context of South Asian arts, the term refers specifically to the literary, performing, and visual arts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.2

While the broader geographic region of South Asia is often defined to include additional countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Nepal through organizations like the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, the specific academic classification of "South Asian arts" focuses on the shared cultural and historical traditions of the four nations mentioned above.123