Why and how did our country fall from its brilliant antiquity to the degradation of pre-British days? The answer is that defeat of the oppressed castes at the hands of the Brahminic overlordship, of materialism by idealism, constituted the beginning of the fall of India's civilization and culture which in the end led to the loss of national independence.

Above two quotes are on Adi Sankara's success of idealism vis-a-vis materialism in page=11. - History, Society, and Land Relations: Selected Essays