Ancient Rome & Greece have a certain charm because their secular history & politics, life is so well documented. You can read a 1st century BCE senator & his political tensions & personal life. I wish I could read what a 4th century Mauryan commander in Bactria had to write.

Or what an Indian Merchant in sail for East Africa or Java had to write. What was his mindset like, his travels, his journey of meeting the natives. Or I wish I could read what a Gupta cavalry commander fighting the Hunas had to write

Alas, It really undercuts our real greatness

One of the biggest reasons Classical India is not given its due, despite standing toe-to-toe with China or Greece is it is not as documented as both of them. We just will never get to know how life exactly was like in the eyes and minds of people who lived in that time.

This not only hurts us because we cannot know the full extent of the bureaucracy, administrative system or sophistication of politics but also miss out on the mindset of Indians who lived in a proud country that considered itself the center of the civilized world.

On a more sanguine note, the loftiest achievement we did make was unbroken cultural continuity. No one today spare some Han have the privilege of studying Classical Civilizations not as museum relics but as an unbroken continuation of history like we do.

Of course, India is an emerging economy and so does not have the luxury to spend so much time in the fine arts cultivating classical scholars, unlike the west. But I reckon as and when we progress a bit more, we will and should with state encouragement, cultivate classical study.

By this. I mean, Indian men & women studying Sanskrit, Greek, Latin & analyzing their history and that of Rome & Greece. Who better to study them than their last surviving polytheistic cousins? I daresay, a morose christian hold on this field of study is not good.