Hindu Administrative Institutions c13.5

c13.5

The tendency was for small states to assert their independence and hence their individuality grew and grew after the empire of Harṣa with the consequence that the whole country was parcelled out in different tiny states, each by itself weak to resist the powerful invader. This lack of unity among themselves gave a sure opening to the invading chieftain, and the result was the decay of Hindu culture. It decayed but did not die. The Rajputs, the Maharattas, the Sikhs attempted to revive the age-long institutions but with no success. But success is yet to be. We conclude with Jayaswal: ‘The constitutional progress made by the Hindu has probably not been equalled, much less surpassed by any polity of antiquity. The great privilege of the Hindu at the same time is that he is not yet a fossil: he is still living with a determination which a great historian (Duncker) has characterized as a tenacity which bends but does not break. The Golden Age of his polity lies not in the Past but in the Future.’¹