First & Second Battle of Panipat

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The second battle of Panipat between Hemu and Mughal Army marked the final triumph of the Mughals in their contest for supremacy in India.
Bairam Khan, the military commander of Mughal Emperor Akbar, put a bold face on the situation and overruling the decision of timid counselors determined to recover Delhi from Hemu and to give battle to his advancing army. Fortune favored him from the outset. His advance guard surprised and captured the entire park of Hemu’s artillery.

Next the two armies met at Panipat in 1556. In spite of the loss of his artillery Hemu was at first successful on both wings and would have probably won the day but for an unlucky shaft which hit him in the eye. He fell down unconscious and his army, left leaderless, fled in disorder.

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The First Battle of Panipat was fought between armies of Ibrahim Lodi and Mughal Emperor Babur. Ibrahim Lodi was defeated in the battle. The war took place on 21st day of April, 1526.
Ibrahim Lodi, the Sultan of Delhi, was an arrogant type ruler. As a result of Afghan aristocrats were engaged in a conspiracy to dethrone him.

Daulat Khan, the Afghan ruler of Punjab, invited Mughal ruler Babur to invade India. In 1524 Babur tried to attack India. But as the difference between Babur and Daulat Khan grew, Babur had to make a retreat.
In the next year Babur came back with bigger force and by defeating Daulat Khan captured Punjab. Then the Mughal army marched towards Delhi. The Afghan and Mughal army faced each other in the battle field of Panipat near Delhi (1526 A.D.).
On reaching Panipat, Babur organized the defense of his troops. His right flank was covered by the town of Panipat while the left was protected by a ditch filled with trees.
Babar wanted Ibrahim to start the offensive. The latter knew nothing about the defensive arrangements of the enemy. He, therefore, launched an offensive. But the line of his troops was so extended that there was no room for all of them to participate in the attack. This caused the initial confusion. When they came within range they were hailed with a volley of guns and matchlocks and a shower of arrows. The presence of chained carts checked their advance. This broke their ranks. The Afghans began to get huddled together. The gunners and archers of Babur continued doing havoc in their ranks while the flanking parties on the right and the left turned their flanks and surrounded them on all sides.
By his clever leadership Babur defeated very large Afghan regiment with only twelve thousand soldiers. Ibrahim died on April 20, 1526. Thus, the Sultan Shahi in ended in India. Babur’s troops occupied both Delhi and Agra and the Mughal rule came into being.
Causes behind Babur’s success and Ibrahim Lodi’s defeat
The empire which Bahlul Lodi and Sikandar Lodi had reared up with such labor was rolled up by a single attack of Babur. This was the outcome of Ibrahim’s defeat in the First Battle of Panipat. What were its causes?
1.Ibrahim was not a good diplomat. Even in a crisis, he could not rope in the support of Daulat Khan, Muhammad Shah or Rana Sanga so that Babur found practically no difficulty in occupying the Punjab. Fortunately for Babur, his central Asian neighbors caused him no distraction so that he could confidently pursue his plans in India.
2.The soldiers of Ibrahim were not satisfied with him. Afghans were a house divided among them and Ibrahim was no able general.
3.If his spies of Ibrahim Lodi had been efficient, he should have surrounded the camp of Babur and cut off supplies instead of making a frontal attack on him. But Ibrahim was utterly innocent of even the existence of some defensive arrangement.
4.The tactics of Babur were utterly unknown to Indians and they possessed no arm which could be a match for Babur’s artillery.
5.The trained archers of Babur also contributed to Babur’s success.

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The Second battle of Panipat was fought on 5th November, 1556, between Hindu King Hemu and Akbar’s trusted general Bairam Khan. The Mughal Army of Bairam Khan won the battle.

When Humayun died, his 13 year-old eldest son, Akbar, was the ruler of Punjab, with Bairam Khan as his guardian. Soon, Bairam Khan declared Akbar the Emperor of Delhi from Punjab on 14 February 1556 A.D.


At this time, the Mughal Empire was restricted to Delhi, Agra and small parts of Punjab. The Afghans were still strong in vast areas of north India. Sher Shah’s descendant, Muhammad Adil Shah, reorganized himself in the east.

Himu, a Hindu general of Adil Shah, just after the sudden demise of Humayun, led a large army and captured Delhi and Agra, declaring himself ‘Vikramaditya’, an independent Hindu king. But he lost out to Akbar and Bairam Khan at The Second Battle of Panipat (1556 A.D).

It ended Himu’s dreams of Hindu domination, Afghan aspirations to return to the Delhi throne and the three-decade-long Afghan-Mughal conflict. The Mughals were finally the rulers, about to expand their control over the country.

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Introduction

The Third Battle of Panipat took place on 14th of January, 1761 between:
•the Maratha army and
•the combined forces of Ahmad Shah Afdali (Afghan King), Shuja-ud-Daula (Nawab of Begal) and Rohilla Afgans.

The Maratha army under Sadashivrao Bhau was defeated in the Third Battle of Panipat.

The Battle field

The Maratha army, 45,000 strong with a large number of non-combatants in the centre, advanced slowly, but their original plan of mass movement could not be carried out. Sadashivrao Bhau, therefore, reformed his troops in a long line, taking his stand in the centre along with Vishwas Rao, both riding on magnificent war elephants with the Bhagwa Jhanda in their front. To his left was stationed Ibrahim Gardi with his regular battalions, and Damaji Gaikwad on his immediate right. On the Bhau’s right Malhar Rao Holkar and Jankoji Sindhia took their stand. The Bhau did not keep any part of his troops in reserve. The Marathas made a desperate attack attempting to rush through the enemy ranks which consisted of 60,000 combatants, half of whom were foreigners, and almost all were cavalry men with a small number of foot soldiers.

The enemy centre was commanded by the Abdali’s wazir Shah Wali Khan who had the select Durrani cavalry under his charge. Shuja-ud-daula was stationed between the Abdali wazir and Najib-ud-daula. On the right flank were Barkhurdar Khan and Amir Beg at the head of Ruhela and Mughal contingents. The Abdali himself took his stand at the back of his centre near a picked reserve so as to keep his eye on the development of the action in the various parts of the field.


The Maratha attack began in the morning with a fierce discharge of artillery and rockets from Ibrahim Gardi’s heavy guns. The Gardi-Ruhela duel lasted three hours after which in the confused hand-to-hand fighting with the help of the fresh Afghan troops sent by the Abdali, the Gardi battalions were almost annihilated. While this contest was going on, the Abdali’s centre under his wazir was attacked by the Bhau with the whole of the Maratha household cavalry. In spite of the Afghan resistance, the Marathas broke through three of their lines. Shah Wali Khan was bewildered.

The desperate resistance of Najib-ud-daula to a Maratha charge ultimately saved the situation. At this time, the Abdali threw in his fresh reserves and sent round his military police to force the stragglers who were running away to the rear, to proceed to the front. He posted 4,000 men to cover his right and dispatched 10,000 troops to reinforce his wazir Shah Wali Khan with instructions to charge with sword in hand. At the same time, he ordered Shah Parsand Khan and Najib-ud-daula to take the Maratha centre in flank. The Afghan swivel guns mounted on camels were now ordered to fire. The enemy camels galloped along the lines and began firing swivels from their saddles into the closed ranks of the Marathas. The simultaneous counter attacks by fresh troops launched all along the lines at the time when the Marathas were tired and hungry, brought about their collapse. Still they contested the ground, inch by inch, and for full two hours there was such a deadly struggle that nothing could be seen or heard except the clash and rattle of weapons and battle cries of the rival armies. At about 2.15 p.m. a chance bullet struck Vishwas Rao and killed him. The Bhau now desperately threw himself on the enemy, fought for an hour longer and was killed in the confusion. At this, all of a sudden the Maratha resistance collapsed.

Loss

Thousands of soldiers of both the sided were killed in the battle. The Marathas lost prominent leaders like Vishwas Rao, the eldest son of the Peshwa Balaji Rao, the Bhau himself, Jaswant Rao Pawar, Tukoji Scindia and a few others. Jankoji Scindia was severely wounded and later put to death. Ibrahim Gardi was taken prisoner and also put to death. Malhar Rao Holkar had fled from the field leaving Jankoji Scindia to his fate, and he safely reached Poona.

Mahadji Sindhia, though wounded, saved himself by flight.

Conclusion

The battle proved to be absolutely decisive. There was great collapse of the Maratha military power. The Maratha dream for the establishment of their dominion over entire country was shattered as the consequence of their defeat at Panipat.

The most important consequence of the Maratha defeat was that it paved the path of the British supremacy in India. The political star of British East India company was now rising.