Military strength-driven prosperity for India
Ancient India, say, till the 7th century CE, was very rich, in fact, India and China were two richest countries of the world, and that's why it attracted hordes of adventurers from all over from Central Asia and from as far as Macedonia and Greece. Rich India was, however, not so powerful militarily. Except for few notable victories like Chandragupta Maurya's over Alexander's general and satrap Seleucus and Skandagupta's over the Shakas (Scythians), generally, the invaders would succeed in penetrating into Indian plains but in two-three generations they would be absorbed in our society as Kshatriyas. The real damage to India was done by the Arabs by their conquest of Sindh in 712 CE. It was India's first encounter with violent Islam and it could not absorb Arabs because they belonged to a religion of the book. After a respite of three centuries, India was a fair game for all kinds of Muslim invaders, Afghans, Turks, various Turkiks of Central Asia and finally th...