had more surplus, got looted more
got destroyed more, less building up
Why are both the Gangetic and the Indus valleys, home to the most glorious civilizations, both so incredibly backward today?
Because, historically their prosperity has been coassociated : it is the Indo-Gangetic Dyad that completes the subcontinental circulation arc, which, when it is severed, is limited to the peninsular coastlines.
When the Indus-Gangetic systems are integrated, we get a complete circle of movement across the Subcontinent, enriching the deltas, the river routes, as they arc around the upper reaches, and circling along down to the delays in the east and west, thus twice-uniting the coastlines, and integrating them with the hinterlands, as the heart of the Indian Ocean world, which itself is the heart of the world-ocean.
As long as the Indus and Ganga are severed, both ‘Indusians’ and ‘Gangetics’ will remain poor. Peninsulars will however continue to prosper. But not as much as they could.