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The Battle of Panipat, a pivotal event in Indian history, took place on 21 April 1526, marking the dawn of the Mughal Empire in India under the leadership of Babur. This historic conflict saw Babur's innovative tactics and use of field artillery defeat the numerically superior forces of the Delhi Sultanate's Ibrahim Lodi.
- Overview
- First Battle of Panipat (1526)
- Second and Third Battles of Panipat (1556, 1761)
Battles of Panipat, (1526, 1556, 1761), three military engagements, important in the history of northern India, fought at Panipat, a level plain suitable for cavalry movements, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Delhi.
An overwhelmingly outnumbered Mughal force prevailed at Panipat. This was due to the resourcefulness of its commander, Babur, demonstrated in his use of field fortifications and his instinctive sense of the value of the firepower of gunpowder. The victory enabled him to lay the foundations for the Indian Mughal Empire.
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A descendant of Timur, Babur became a refugee at the age of twelve when the Uzbeks seized Samarkand in 1494. At age fifteen he was back with his own warband. He laid siege to his home city, but without success. Undaunted, he headed south into Afghanistan. Capturing Kabul in 1504, he made it his base for raids into Central Asia’s Transoxania region. Increasingly, however, he found himself tempted by the unimaginable wealth of India. In the years that followed, he mounted a series of incursions into the Punjab.
These territories had for three centuries belonged to a Muslim empire, the Delhi sultanate. Although its prestige had been badly damaged by Timur’s triumph of 1398, it remained a powerful presence in northern India. At this time, the sultanate was under the control of an Afghan elite. A capricious and divisive ruler, Sultan Ibrahim Lodi had alienated many of his nobles. It was indeed a local lord in Hindustan who, in 1523, invited Babur to undertake a full-scale invasion.
Although he clearly was attracted by the idea of invasion, Babur was in no hurry. His army numbered only 10,000 men, so he made sure that they were well equipped and superbly trained before committing to his assault on Hindustan. He took the time to train them in the use of gunpowder weapons, while making sure their skills in traditional steppe warfare were not neglected. Only at the end of 1525 did he embark on his invasion.
The Mughal Empire’s expansion, stalled after the death of its founder Babur in 1530, began anew under Babur’s grandson, Akbar. Fighting on a field that had proved so propitious for his grandfather, the young Akbar won a vital victory over the powerful Hindu ruler, Hemu.
Babur’s son Humayun had encountered serious setbacks, even losing his kingdom after it was conquered by the Pashtun warlord Sher Shah Suri in 1540. Rebuilding his forces in exile, he eventually took back his realms fifteen years later, leaving his son and successor, Akbar, with a great empire.
To the east of Akbar’s realms, the Suri general Hemu had set himself up as a strongman ruler; calling himself a king, he built a powerbase in Bengal. Aged just thirteen, Akbar seemed singularly ill-equipped to cope with this threat. However, he had rare gifts—and the support of his guardian, the accomplished general Bairam Khan. Hemu had unstoppable momentum, it seemed—having already taken Agra and the strategic fortress of Tughlaqabad, in October 1556 he captured Delhi. Too late to save the city, Akbar’s army let it go and stopped on the plains to the north, at Panipat.
On 5 November 1556, the scene was set for the Second Battle of Panipat. Repeated elephant charges failed to break the resolve of the outnumbered Mughal soldiers. An inspiring figure, Hemu led from the front, perched high up on an elephant, an important talisman for his troops. He was also a tempting target for the Mughal archers, and initially they showered him with shafts to no avail, so impregnable was the headto-foot armor he was wearing. Eventually, though, one arrow found its way in through an eye-slit and killed him. Seeing their leader fall, the Hindus broke and fled.
The third battle (Jan. 14, 1761) ended the Maratha attempt to succeed the Mughals as rulers of India and marked the virtual end of the Mughal empire. The Maratha army, under the Bhao Sahib, uncle of the peshwa (chief minister), was trapped and destroyed by the Afghan chief Aḥmad Shah Durrānī.
Following the decline of the Mughal Empire after the death of Emperor Aurangzeb, the Maratha Confederacy had expanded rapidly, threatening the Afghan Durrani Empire, ruled by Ahmad Shah Durrani. Ahmad declared a jihad and launched a campaign that captured large parts of the Punjab. The Marathas responded by raising a large army, under the command of Sadashivrao Bhau, and recaptured Delhi. Ahmad’s campaign was aimed at starving the Maratha army of its supplies. At the same time, he led an army of 40,000 into the south to trap the Maratha army in the Punjab.
Aug 9, 2019 · The First Battle of Panipat is a crucial turning point in the history of India. Although it would take time for Babur and his successors to consolidate control over the country, the defeat of the Delhi Sultanate was a major step towards the establishment of the Mughal Empire , which would rule India until it was defeated in turn by the British ...
- Kallie Szczepanski
In this current period in Bollywood, where history has served only as food for misplaced chest-beating patriotism, Panipat, is more grounded to reality in comparison. There is no denying that facts have been altered in Panipat mostly to adapt to a simpler screenplay.
The First Battle of Panipat, on 21 April 1526 was fought between the invading forces of Babur and the Lodi dynasty. It took place in North India and marked the beginning of the Mughal Empire and the end of the Delhi Sultanate.
- 21 April 1526
- Delhi Sultanate annexed by the Timurids
Third Battle of Panipat (1761): This battle between the Maratha Empire and Ahmad Shah Durrani had devastating consequences for India. It led to a power vacuum and initiated a period of chaos that ultimately facilitated British colonization.
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The Third Battle of Panipat occurred on 14 January 1761 at Panipat, around 60 miles (97 km) north of Delhi, between a northern expeditionary power of the Maratha Empire and attacking powers of the King of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Abdali, bolstered by two Indian partners the Rohilla Afghans of the Doab, and Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh.
