WAS THE THIRD BATTLE OF PANIPAT

A TIPPING POINT IN INDIAN HISTORY?

Murad Ali Baig

The Third Battle of Panipat in January 1761 was the longest and bloodiest battle in Indian history. A new Maratha army with modern French canons, superior horses and modern training to fight the European way with artillery and drilled infantry pursued some 70,000 battle hardened Afghan cavalry for over ten weeks all over the northern plains. The ravaging armies stripped the land of all food, fodder, fuel and valuables with the result that the final battle was really determined by the weakness from starvation suffered both by the opposing soldiers and their horses.

The casualties during the final battle on 14 January 1761 were appalling. The Marathas and Afghans, fighting valiantly, each lost about 40,000 soldiers on the battlefield and another 40,000 Marathas were slaughtered after the defeat became a rout. Unknown numbers of civilians and draught bullocks also perished. Unlike most battles in India both adversaries fought staunchly till the very end instead of turning away when they saw the prospects of victory diminishing. Both armies were so depleted after the titanic battle that the exhausted Afghan victors, knowing that there was nothing left in India to plunder, meekly returned to their homeland supporting as many wounded as had died in battle. They never invaded India again. Their enemies the Marathas also limped back to their homeland to never threaten north India again. The tattered remains of the once great Mughal Empire had become so depleted that it was never again able to forge a nation even if a notional Mughal empire survived for nearly another century. The vassal states were so scattered that the British got easy opportunities to pick them off one by one to establish their Indian Empire.

The great Maratha army led by the redoubtable Sadashiv Rao Bhao fought with great skill, courage and admirable determination. His most outstanding general was Ibrahim Khan Gardi who commanded the Maratha artillery and 5000 infantry. His force had been trained by Charles de Bussy while in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad but he later became a fiercely loyal Maratha commander. Maratha feudatory chiefs like Mahadji Holkar and Jankoji Scindhia however slipped away from the battle when the tide of combat began to turn leaving the Bhau and Gardi to battle it out at the forefront of the action. The bodies of the Bhau and some other Maratha heroes was discovered among heaps of dead the following day and Abdali had the good grace to honor his brave adversaries and send the bodies back to the Marathas for a proper cremation. They were not so kind to Ibrahim Khan Gardi who had been seriously wounded. Considering him a traitor he was allowed to die without proper treatment for his wounds.  

Bhau, veteran of several wars in the Deccan, was nephew of the Peshwa and was like him a tall and fair Saraswat Brahmin. He was greatly respected as a man of religious devotion, austere habits, discipline, authority and great physical fitness. His daily regimen included doing 1200 Suryapranam exercises. Many villages in Haryana believe that Bhau survived and revere his memory to this day. Bhau fought for the Maratha nation that Shivaji had founded and had no interest in forging a Hindu kingdom. This is clear from his own words… “We are concerned with preserving the monarchy of the Chagatai (Mughal) dynasty…”

His adversary Abdali, who founded the Durrani empire, had been a devoted officer of the Persian ruler Nadir Shah and had raided India seven times for plunder. An Indian noble who saw him after Nadir Shah pillaged Delhi said that he saw in him the bearing of a king. A number of Afghan clans settled earlier in the area between Saharanpur and Bareilly rallied to the Afghan cause and helped Abdali with men and materials. The Marathas eventually took up position outside the town of Panipat leaving the Afghans free to sweep the surrounding area of all food, fuel and fodder. The Marathas added to their own deprivation because the raj jyotshi, or court astrologer, said that it was inauspicious to attack before the `Makar Sankranti’ or winter solstice. Only meat from starving bullocks and horses was plentiful but most Marathas were vegetarian. Thus after nearly two months of self inflicted siege the weakened Maratha soldiers and especially their horses sallied forth to fight the fateful battle.

Unlike the Bhau, Abdali did not position himself in the forefront of the battle but rode just behind the lead battalions to command the evolving conflict. The Afghans wore thick leather jackets unlike the Marathas who wore light chain mail on their shoulders and were described by the Afghans as… “barebacked warriors”. Clad in light cotton clothes suitable for the Deccan the Marathas also suffered greatly from the severe cold of winter.   

The Third Battle of Panipat was to be a tipping point in India’s history.

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First and Second battles of Panipat.

The nearly featureless flat plains between Delhi and Ambala was the watershed for several battles that were to shape India’s long history. Eighty kilometers north of Panipat was Kuukshetra where the mythical 18 day battle of the epic Mahabharata was believed to have been fought.

In April 1526 AD Babur invaded India from Kabul with a small force of 12,000 mounted archers and roundly defeated some 100,000 soldiers under Ibrahim Lodi to establish the great Mughal Empire. Babur was the first to use the Chinese invention of gunpowder in India. His row of 700 crude canons mounted on bullock carts were lashed together with the walls of Panipat on his right and the soggy banks of the Jumna River to his left. A skirmishing force led by his son Humayun engaged the Lodis and pretended to retreat enticing the Lodi army, led by some 200 elephants, into a trap. Babur waited till the enemy elephants and cavalry were funneled into a narrow front where they were greeted with a wall of flame. The elephants and horses panicked and fled back trampling the packed soldiers riding behind them. Babur then let loose his mounted archers whose famed Mongol bows wrought havoc among the confused enemy who turned and fled leaving Ibrahim Lodi and some 6000 dead on the killing field. The battle was over in a few hours and Babur’s small band of followers was to found the great Mughal Empire.

The second battle of Panipat in November 1556 really established the Mughal Empire. After Babur’s short reign of five years his son Humayun was driven from India by the Afghan chief Sher Shah Suri. Humayun’s son Akbar inherited the throne after Sher Shah’s death when he was only 13. He was challenged by a huge army of Hindu and Muslim chiefs led by an unlikely Hindu commander called Hemu. Though lame and unable to ride a horse Hemu was a great strategist and victor of 22 battles. He had defeated the Mughals at Agra and Delhi and had a huge force including thousands of elephants facing a small Mughal army. After a chance arrow hit Hemu in the eye and he fell unconscious his huge army fled in dismay. Akbar then ruled for 49 years and was able to really establish the Mughal Empire.  

A chapter for my next book ... 80 More Questions to Understand India... history, mythology and religion.