What effect did the Bronze Age collapse have on India?

Question

There was direct trade between Mesopotamia and India from the 3rd millennium BCE, and indirect trade as far back as the 9th millennium BCE.

I'm wondering what effect the Bronze Age collapse (c. 1200 BCE) had on this trade, and on India in general. The article I linked to says trade with the Indus River valley was disrupted around 1900 BCE, but I find it hard to believe that all ME-Indian trade stopped. Surely, indirect trade routes survived, and maybe direct trade with nearer regions such as Persia continued as well.

I don't know enough about Vedic India to say how much it traded with Mesopotamia, or if it was harmed by the Bronze Age collapse. It seems like this was a time of slow state-building in the north, and continued prehistory in the south.

Answer 1

The Indus Valley civilization started declining around 1700 BCE. The Bronze Age transitioned into the Iron age also referred to as PGW(Painted Greyware)-Iron age, somewhere around 1000-1100 BCE (Iron was discovered in burial sites near Gandhara). There was no abrupt collapse of the bronze age. . The conventional viewpoint is that at this stage that mixing with incoming populations from central asia became more pronounced which led to the decline coupled with the Indus doab undergoing climatic changes. The population at the time became more distributed and scattered along the Gangetic doab which was more than a couple of thousand kilometers away from the Indus Valley.

However, studies have been published regarding the genetic linkage between the south Indian (Asian) and the Mesopotamian populations. If genetic studies show any sign of linkage then it does indicate some cultural/trade relation still existed. The extent of prehistory in south India has also been redefined in view of the ongoing excavations in the state of Tamil Nadu which have pushed back the urbanization date by more than a few centuries.

Answer 2

This is probably not a very good answer, although perhaps it provides some context.

There is evidence that the Indus valley people migrated towards Sumer, and conducted trade with Oman and the present day orient, by boat, from 3000BC until later civilizations used the same trade route in 350BC.

The details of Indus valley chronology and trade are enigmatic. Adding to Babylonian trade, there were vast tribal lands throughout coastal India/Asia where boat trade would also have been possible. The brief wiki entry on the Late Indus period coincides with the bronze-iron age transition and demonstrates that little has been dug up/decyphered in present day Pakistan and West India from 1200BC.

The bronze age collapse was centered about 2000-4000 kilometers away from the indus valley, in fact, Alexandria to the Indus valley is 5000 kilometers. As we travel Eastwards towards the Indus, the civilizations become a collection of undecyphered clay tablets and abandoned cities with little known history.

At around that time, Icelands most dangerous supervolcano Hekla had exploded causing a decade of northern hemispheric cooling, perhaps associated with the Egyptian droughts, although there isn't a known climactic reason for bronze age collapse.

The Greeks were fighting various wars like the fantasized Trojan war which is associated with celestial forces, historically suggested to be around 1280/1250BC, at the time where Ramses ii was also fighting fierce invasions.

The civilization of Crete ended mysteriously, a bit later, around 1100BC. They had struggled since the minoan eruption of ~1600BC.

Ramses ii and iii had fierce wars with maritime invaders who destroyed most coastal Egyptian cities from 1280 unti 1200BC. The invaders were perhaps from the North-East Mediterranean.

The Babylonians of modern day Iraq, Tigris and Euphrates had a fairly regular sequence of rulers and frequent wars with the Assyrians who controlled the west of the Tigris and Euphrates. Their script and history is well known.

To the east of Babylon was the mysterious Elam empire, nearer to India. They spoke an undecyphered language perhaps related to Harappan language which is also un-decyphered. Elam used Akkadian script whereas the Harappans used their local script. Indus Harrapan trade-stamps have been found in babylon and present day Iran/Elam.

To unravel the loose ends would be to figure out the harrapan script: https://www.ted.com/talks/rajesh_rao_computing_a_rosetta_stone_for_the_indus_script?language=en The researcher discusses the challenge of decoding the texts.

Answer 3

Collapse of bronze age marked the downfall of a highly developed urban civilization.Its trade and commerce which helped it to expose this civilization to the civilization flourished in various parts of the world, started to decline which ultimately isolates the civilization which helped the Aryans to slowly but steadily replace it with a less developed rural civilization. Evidence of it can be reached in later (declining) phase of Indus valley civilization. People of bronze age used science in their life that was unequal to other parts of the erstwhile civilizations. For instance- they used grid pattern to design their city. They used granaries to store grains from being destroyed. Their metallurgy skills were without equals. Their waste management system was far superior to what we see even today in many parts of this world. They were well versed in ship building and maritime technologies, which unfortunately forgotten by successive civilizations. In terms of religion they seem of one view. Evidences show that women were highly reputed in Indus valley civilization which sadly deteriorated in Vedic times. Also their trade routes were forgotten which later attributed to Alexander for their discovery. By land and by sea they flourished their trade with middle-east Asia and Middle Asia. Seals of Bronze age India were also found in different parts of the world which clearly signifies the development of trade and commerce. Their culture and customs can still be seen practiced in many places in Indian Subcontinent.

Unfortunately, around 1500 B.C. it all started to decline and all the growth and developments were kept aside until its excavation in 1921. We became isolated, trades were cut-off, and such a glorious civilization was forgotten for thousands of years. Had it not happened, India would have seen uncountable centuries of prosperity.