Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c27.14

c27.14

From 550 A. C. onwards Hindu history melts into brilliant biographies—isolated gems without a common string of national and communal life. We get men great in virtue or great in crime—we get Harsha and Śaśāṅka, Yaśodharman Kalki and Śaṅkarāchārya—but they are so high above the common level that they are only helplessly admired and sacredly respected.¹ The community ceases to breathe freedom. The causes of this decay must be internal which have yet to be investigated. The Hūṇ invasion alone cannot explain it. The Hūṇs were fully crushed within a century by successive dynasts. Yet the old life refused to return.