The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c10.94

c10.94

Looked at from the point of view of the whole sub-continent it is common-place to treat this period as one of decay. About the period from 985 to 1300 A.D., Dr. Majumdar writes,¹ "The three centuries dealt with in this volume witnessed not only decay of political authority, but also a definite set back in the progress of their culture. Except in the domain of art, particularly the temple architecture, we find a steady decline and decadence, which has already set in the preceding period." K. M. Munshi lets the cat out of the bag and agreeing with Dr. Majumdar complains that there was no "Aryavarta Consciousness" in this period, taking a narrow Pan-Indian outlook.² But as bird's eye view of Indian history shows, the strong and latent centrifugal forces remained dormant at times, only to resume their existence like the famous plant whose proverbial behaviour is described as *Vetasi vritti*. This aquatic plant survives a flood by bending in its direction to resume its upright posture after the subsidence of the flood. Whenever a strong and imperial power emerged in one of the focal regions, it soon expanded at the expense of its neighbours. It is superfluous to state that no empire in the whole range of Indian history ever ruled this entire sub-continent—not to say a large part of it—for more than a few centuries or even decades.