India’s only great period, the Maurya empire, coincided with caste annihilation.

Evidence

There cannot be a more degrading system of social organisation than the caste system. It is the system which deadens, paralyses, and cripples the people, from helpful activity. This is no exaggeration. History bears ample evidence. There is only one period in Indian history which is a period of freedom, greatness and glory. That is the period of the Maurya empire. At all other times the country suffered from defeat and darkness. But the Maurya period was a period when the caste system was completely annihilated—when the Shudras, who constituted the mass of the people, came into their own and became the rulers of the country. The period of defeat and darkness is the period when the caste system flourished, to the damnation of the greater part of the people of the country. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 929

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is Ambedkar’s historical claim about the Maurya period as caste-free historically accurate, or is this rhetorical construction? Worth chasing.