India has been in actuality for something around 3000 years. The Bharat Varsha concept has been in trend for more than 3000 years. Many people would difference of opinion this aside saying that I am quoting myth but I would like to claim that it is our education which denominates the way we look at facts and figures presented to us. We are all products of the Western system of education which perforce had to civilise our thinking from the "barbaric" ways of our ancestors’ way of understanding Bharat Varsha and its contributions to mankind.When we study civilisations and their rise and fall. There will be one thing significantly comes to light which is the cycle of growth and fall is similar to the law of diminishing returns. When a civilisation is in the establishing mode then the need to create newer standards is a epochal. This accelerates the creative spirit of the surrounding environment and the passionate desire to contribute to the growth drives this creative spirit. However once certain exceptional standards are achieved which one may look back upon as catalytic to the growth of the society. The collective psyche tends to stagnate and basking in the glory of its achievements.Let’s take an example of a company X which was in the process of getting established for a great product they invented. During the early few odd years the energy in the company would be electric and transferable. The people populating the environment would be driven by a sense of achievement. When it is firmly established and the growth is accelerating, demand goes high, the creativity tends to retard as there is a lack of urgency to meet expectations. People tend to relax in the light of their achievements and rely more on the past examples. This would plateau the growth after a couple of years and eventually lead to prospective downfall of the enterprise. Unless there is an urgent need to innovate so as to survive. This again leads to creativity and newer ideas.In other words, if X axis is Time (in months) and Y axis is Creativity the resulting curve would be shaped as an Inverted Bell (Bell curve) in which the Initial Curve (IC) is more gradual and therefore more in time. The Plateau (TP) stretching for about one third of the earlier time and then finally the Down Curve (DC) lasting for about almost the same time of the up curve with the initial slope much steeper gradually narrowed off which would be repeated again and again if certain survival stimuli are given on the down-coming curve. This could be termed as rebirth of the creativity drive.The brilliant positive aspect of these curves is that if the resurrection occurs the base line now begins higher due to the previous repository of knowledge. We have compressed time when we consider small entities like companies for whom the lifespan generally is of 20 to 30 years on an average. When we consider life cycle of civilisations / Nations, the time model is in units of 100 to 200 of years. These entities follow the similar bell curves as did the company X discussed above. Now let’s consider the specific example given in the question India.Period in question is 1500 BC to 2000 AD.
IC:
The history of our beloved nation has been that of extreme innovation and creativity in the earlier 2500 odd years. Just imagine the Mahabharata and Ramayana had descriptions of almost modern settings. We had flying objects (Pushpaka Biman); we had weapons which caused destruction similar to that of atom bombs (Brahma Astra etc). We had great governance and administration as is evident from the both stories. We had great innovations in music, arts and sciences e.g. Astronomy, Astrology, Numerals, Communication, town planning and musical creativity as is evident from the metres used in the Mahabharata and Ramayana. We had creativity at its essence which resulted in the structure of Grammar by Panini unparalled till date, Medical sciences sprouted volumes on the human diseases and ailments as propounded by Charaka, Sushruta and in the Ayurveda. We had the human body studied thoroughly and exercises detailing the minutest as in Ashtanga Yoga by Patanjali etc. The list could go on and on and on. This is the IC part of the Bell.
T P:
The period from the 200 BC to about 800 AD has been an era also termed as the Golden Era of our civilisation. This was the time wherein the flower of the creativity expressed in the IC part blossomed. You had magnificent temples built, luxury palaces built and expression of art at its epitome. Examples of these are, Khajuraho, Somnath, Badrinath, Kamrup, Madurai temples, great cities built like Pataliputra, education centres like Nalanda, Taxila; wonderful poets like Kalidasa, Bhartrihari; astronomers and mathematicians like Aryabhatta, Bhaskara etc. This era did not add substantially to stimulating creativity but started making the thought process rigid and structured leaving very less room for creativity.
D C:
Whenever we say it is the Golden Period of a nation. It is the first sign of the DC to come. It has been rightly said that huge and impressive monuments and extremely involved complex structures indication the downfall of a civilisation. The period from about 800 AD (more or less) to 1950 AD was a period of total rigidity and contracted thinking. They have been examples which defied the above (like those expressed in monumental structures as in Mughal Period, in Rajasthan and in the Vijaynagar period) but more or less except for such examples of very less time about 100 odd years. The decline in thought and expression of the Indian Psyche was very vivid. We lacked unity and we fought incessantly without much progress on any front. This also resulted in migration from one ideology to another and resulted in further rigidity.1950 AD onwards: We have come to a period of creative upheaval. The process of breaking the chains of the DC era are slowly breaking and this has resulted in the mass movement of creative leaders migrating to the West which fostered their latent potential. This “brain drain " has resulted in many Indians making a name for themselves abroad and this in turn has slowly propelled the common man to unshackle him/herself and realise his latent potential . The move the nation is making towards making this reality are not pre-mediated but necessary for survival and thus is starting a movement which would mean the start of another IC with the base line shifted further up.Many would argue to various remarkable instances of creativity in the DC period. I would like to add that within these periods too you will find some minor corrections (as in the Sensex curve) but the general trend has been that of a DC. The IC has surely started now and thus this is a time of increasing creativity necessitated by survival.Curiously it is also the time of IC in the Chinese civilisation next-door. In all, I would say that India will now produce quantum inventions as these would be necessary for the future survival of this civilisation.
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