Hindu/Buddhist India had what were probably the best international universities of their time, attracted students from around Asia and an institutionalised tradition of secular scholarship.
Islamic India beheaded people for writing heterodox treatises, has no scientific achievements and created no institutions of learning. The contest isn’t even close.
To cement this distinction, it was barely a generation after the demise of the last vestiges of the Mughal empire that “Hindu” scientists were turning out science at an international level. To date the one Nobel Laureate Muslim South Asia produced is vilified by what should be his natural constituency for the crime of heterodoxy.

It is comical to hear Indthings speaking of the centuries it will take for Hindu society to lose its superstitions when “scientists” in his preferred South Asian country are conducting research on the application of djinns to solve the energy crisis.

Andalusia in the original semantics means ‘The Land of Lusitanians’ or The Lusatian Krayina. Today’s Extramadura east of Portugal was in ancient times called Serbia than Luzice and Lusitania, as well as the whole southern Spain, which is still called Andalusia. The confirmation is given by the Arabic writer of Massoud who reports that in Andalusia live Serbs (9-10th century) as well as ancient writers who also say that the Luzicki Serbs lived in Portugal and Spain (Diodor, Strabon, Pliny). Luzicki Serbs were for centuries subjected to genocides by Germans, in 1941, there were 500.000 Serbs in Germany, Hitler killed 90% and now there is about 60.000 Lusitanian Serbs in Germany.

Many Serbian toponyms in Spain – Cordoba (Sordoba), Carmona (Sarmona), Carteja (Sarteya), Sevilla (Sibilia). In the past, it was common for the nobility to be named by the place of birth. Thus, the father of Katarina the Great, who was the Prussian admiral, had a family name from the region of Serbiste (=Zerbst) as well as two sons Barbarossa: Federico de Serbia and Filipe de Serbia (Catalan history). A city that is considered Miguel Serbantes’ place of birth is called Veles. There are also the mountain Veles and the Veles River (Rio de Veles). Veles is the old Serbian god and its name has hundreds of Spanish settlements today. The name of the place now is Veles-Malaga. In the Planet maps, the name of the region is Cabrilla (Sabria). The place in which Serbantes was born, has the meaning: from Serbia (i.e. Michael from Serbia). After the development of the Castilian (not Spanish) language, this settlement was named Cabrilla (Sabria), still written with Serbian S. Cabrilla is Sabria or Serbia.

There is nearby the second place that is also called Serbia, which in the Castilian language was named Carihuela (Sarihuela, today Torremolinos) also with Serbian S.

If the Brahmins were looking down on (other) Indians and marrying their daughters selectively, to, say the Chinese, then yes, their Indian credentials would have to be questioned.
Replace Chinese by Persians, Turks and sundry other foreigners and that is what the early Mughals were doing.

Architecturally i don’t think India is any poorer because of Islamic rule, because Islamic rule evidently left a massive architectural footprint behind. However, Hindu states were not lacking in energy either when it came to building grand structures. Of course architecture would have evolved as per Hindu themes. It is not far fetched to assume that a temple complex as majestic as Angkor Wat would have emerged in the plains or plateaus of India. Just the ruins of Hampi or the Martanda temple in Kashmir are enough to convince me what could have come into existence instead.
Indian sciences certainly suffered under the Islamic rule. India had a rich tradition of mathematics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics), which seems to have come to an abrupt end around 12th century.
Literature – this is where I believe Hindu age emerges decidedly superior over Islamic age – rich theme and broad canvass of classical Sanskrit dramas can be breathtaking and awe-inspiring. And I am not talking about the cliched Ramayana or Mahabharata. Even lesser know literary works like Mricchakatikam or Mudrarakshasa are stunningly impactful and engrossing. All these seem to have come to an end at the onset of Islamic age, and in its place all we have is various “namas”- just a dry record of emperors’ court life.
So overall, I do believe overall impact of Islamic rule in India was decidedly negative.
PS – I know I sound strongly Hindu Right wing. I don’t care if I do.
PS – India would have fallen to Turko-Afghans and Mughals anyway. Indian armies relied on individual valor instead of organized warfare. Turko-mongol horse archers were destined to subjugate Indian armies composed of unorganized hordes of infantry and unwieldy elephants.

Razib: “pre-modern regimes were rent extracting machines, though they did encourage economies of scale on occasion by bringing peace.”

This is conventional wisdom from academic historians. I disagree. Ancient societies also focused on product development, process innovation and knowledge creation. {Total factor productivity}

Hi Vijay
Yes, I too have become lazy and futzing around on the net instead of working outdoors.

A cursory image search of tanks in Tamil Nadu and comparison with Tanks in Sri Lanka show scale.

https://www.google.com/search?q=tanks+in+sri+lanka&tbm=isch

https://www.google.com/search?q=tanks+in+TamilNadu&tbm=isch

I think tanks in TN mean, large ponds associated (owned ?) with Temples.

In contrast Tanks in SL are large reservoirs, the last built in the 1150 or so ParakaramaBahu I. Not really built, joined 5 older tanks/reservoirs
https://amazinglanka.com/wp/parakrama-samudraya/
A run of the mill less than average size tank/reservoir near my place is 1km x 500m.

Not a single tank/reservoir is owned by a temple even in historical times. Neither are they really religious places. Irrigation et and use by people.

Now the huge tank/reservoir is maintained by the govt. Smaller ones maintained by Village committee overseen by the Irrigation dept.

The largest tank in TN is Kaveripakkam. It gets water supply directly from the Palar River through the Palar anicut constructed in 1858. King Nandhivarma III supposedly built this tank during his regime (AD. 846-869).

Another big difference most of these are inter connected and fed from perrenial rivers thru ancient canals.
eg Anuradhapura exists because of Nachaduwa, Nuwara Wewa, Tissa Wewa and Basawak Kulama Tanks which are all fed by the Kala Oya (River) thru the Jaya Ganga/Yodha Ela Canal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodha_Ela
https://www.srilanka.travel/yoda-ela

Have a look at the google map to get an idea of the density of tanks.
https://www.google.com/maps/@8.2146829,80.1727732,11.5z

In general, I stay away from here because every minute on this place is taking away my own time but….

First, tanks are also a feature in TN, Andhra and Karnataka. This is because the monsoon season is short. In the wet region of SL, there are not too many tanks, but tanks as a feature of the dry lands have a 2400 year history.

The reason that the South Indian temples are large compared to Buddhist temples is, both, the multiple gods, and the central nature of temples to villages and towns. There are several Buddhist temples that have transitioned to Hindu that are not geographically large but economically huge. It should not be assumed that the large size of the temples means economically strong. Just that they serve as the cultural center, bus stop for the town, shopping areas around, etc.

Even then it is not easy to assume that the large size of temples means no tanks. Often Indian history notes that building temples and tanks is an activity associated with growth periods. Conversely, in rural decay periods, tanks are ignored, failed to get desolated and sand gets stolen for construction. The southern states have not only temples but more tanks than srilanka. This is not an indicator of religion or secularism

Is it really pointless to discuss whether and how Indian the Mughals were ? I am not so sure.

https://twitter.com/shrikanth_krish/status/1150710391909093377

Mugals were very extractive. British were too. People keep saying how rich India has been for thousands of years but this wealth was massively inequally distributed and mainly due to sheer demographic numbers. My region of Bengal has been known as one of the most economically productive region since the Roman Empire era. Basically begal have been the export dynamo like Germany, China now for thousands of years. But you hardly see any relics left by that massive gain in wealth for thousands of years. The artisans lived in the same mud huts and ate the same food for two thousand years. Even before the British came, the Bengal clothing industry was not very productive because artisans did not want to produce more. The more they produced the more the regimes extracted. So they just kept on their subsistence work for generations.