Battles of Panipat

The first battle of Panipat took place in Panipat, it has a great history and importance in Indian history. Three battles of Panipat were held from 1526 to 1761 among which the first battle of Panipat took place on 21 April 1526 in North India, which is known as the first Panipat war year in Indian history. 

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Image: Battle of Panipat 

Do you know the 1st Panipat war was held between Whom and why it happened? Well! The reason was an overwhelmingly outnumbered Mughal force prevailed at Panipat and the battle was held in North India between invading Timurids under Babur (a Mughal founder) and the Afghans under Ibrahim Lodi (the last king of the Delhi sultanate).

This page describes the consequences of the first battle, which led to the successive battles, and also the history behind them. Also, you will get to know 1st Panipat war between whom and when did the second battle of Panipat take place.

Who Won the First Battle of Panipat?

Babur won the first battle of Panipat, his victory led to the extension of the Mughal Empire and the end of the Delhi Sultanate. The  Panipat first war date: The first battle of Panipat is regarded as the earliest battles that involved gunpowder firearms and field artillery in the Indian subcontinent that were instituted by Mughals in this battle.

Babur: A Mughal Emperor Who Won The First Battle of Panipat

After getting to know the size of Ibrahim's military, Babur sent his right troop towards the city of Panipat, while burrowing a channel shielded with tree branches to get his left troops. In the middle, he set 700 carts tied with ropes, and between every two carts, there were breastworks (a kind of low temporary defense) for his matchlock men. Likewise, Babur guaranteed that there was adequate room for his soldiers to rest their guns and fire. Babur referred to this technique as the “Ottoman device" because of its past use by the Ottomans during the Battle of Chaldiran. 

At the point, when Ibrahim's military showed up, he saw the way to deal with Babur's military as too limited to even think about attacking. Meanwhile, he redistributed his forces to embark in the narrower front, Babur suddenly took advantage of the situation to flank (tulghuma) the Lodi armed force. 

Consequences of The First Battle of Panipat

A large number of Ibrahim's soldiers couldn't get right into it and escaped when the fight betrayed them. Ibrahim Lodi was killed while attempting to withdraw and beheaded, as a result, 20,000 Lodi soldiers were killed in a battle. 

We conclude that the battle of Panipat was militarily a tactful victory for Timurids. Politically, it gained Babur new lands and triggered a new phase of his establishment of the durable Mughal Empire in the heart of the Indian subcontinent.

Tactics Used By Babur: The Winner of The Panipat First Battle

Babur was an opportunistic Mughal Emporer who used the tactics of tulguhma and the araba to win the first battle of Panipat, where Tulguhma meant dividing the army into three units, i.e., the Left, the Right, and the Centre, further,  the Left and Right divisions were subdivided into forwarding and Rear divisions. The rationale behind subdividing the army was to surround the enemy with a small troop. The Cental Forward division was allotted with carts (araba) which were positioned in rows facing the enemy and tied to each other with animal hide ropes. Cannons were placed behind them that were safeguarded and supported by mantlets that could be used to easily manoeuvre the cannons. The cannons could be fired without any terror of being hit, as they were shielded by the bullock carts fixed in a place by hiding ropes. The heavy cannons could also be easily relocated onto new targets, as they could be maneuvered by the mantlets which were placed on wheels.

So, these two tactics made Babur's artillery lethal and made him the winner of the first battle of Panipat.

Now, a question arises, what led to the second battle of Panipat? 

When Did the Second Battle of Panipat Take Place?

On November 5, 1556, the second battle of Panipat took place between the forces of Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya,  the Hindu king (popularly called Hemu in short and the ruler of North India from Delhi), and the troop of Akbar. The second battle of Panipat was again a decisive victory of Akbar. Now, we will go insight into the background, the reason for the battle, and the consequences.

Chapter 1: Origin The Second Battle of Panipat

On January 24, 1556, the Mughal ruler Humanyun was assassinated in Delhi and was prevailed by his child, Akbarat Kalanaur, who was just thirteen years of age. Akbar was enthroned as the ruler on 14 February 1556 and at the hour of his to the throne,  the Mughal rule was restricted to Kandahar, Kabul, and the parts of Delhi, and Punjab. Akbar was then crusading in Kabul with his guardian, Bairam Khan. 

Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya or Hemu was a Hindu ruler in Delhi by ideals of overcoming Akbar/Humanyun's military in Battle for Delhi. Hemu hailed from Rewari (now known as Haryana), was previously an advisor to Sher Shah Suri's child, Islam Shah, from 1545 to 1553. Hemu had won 22 battles, as Prime Minister and Chief of Army of Islam Shah, from 1553 to 1556 to suppress the insubordination by Afghan renegades against the Suris regime. 

In January 1556, at the time of Humayun's demise, Hemu initiated a rebel in Bengal, killing the Bengal ruler Muhammad Shah in the conflict. He spread the word about his aims of winning Delhi for known to his commanders. He then, at that point began a mission, winning fights all through northern India. At the point, when he attacked Agra, the soldier of Akbar's forces in Agra, escaped without battling. An enormous space of Etawah, Kalpi, and Agra areas involving present-day Bihar and UP went under Hemu's control. In the Gwalior Fort, Hemu united his military by selecting more Hindus. 

Hemu then, at that point moved towards Delhi and spread his forces outside the city at Tughlaqabad. On October 6, 1556, the armed force encountered a Mughal obstruction. After a fierce battle, Akbar's forces were eliminated, and Tardi Beg, the commandant of the Mughal powers, avoided, permitting Hemu to capture Delhi. 

round 3,000 Mughals were killed. Hemu was designated at Purana Qila on October 7, 1556, and set up Hindu guidelines in North India, keeping 350 years of Muslim principle, and was introduced the title of Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya. As indicated by Abul Fazl in Akbarnama, Hemu was going to assault Kabul and carried out a couple of changes in his military. 

Chapter One: Background of The Second Battle oF Panipat: Why Did The Second Battle of Panipat Take Place?

Following this, when Akbar and Bairam Khan (Akbar’s guardian) got to know about the loss of Agra and Delhi, walked to Panipat to recuperate the lost regions. Multitudes of both Raja Vikramaditya and Akbar conflicted at Panipat close to the site of the First Battle of Panipat of 1526.

Though Hemu and his forces held numerical superiority, they overlooked the tactics of the opponents, and therefore, Hemu got several wounds by an arrow in the middle of the battle and fell unconscious. Seeing their leader going down, his troop got afraid and dispersed. Unconscious and almost dead, Raja Vikramaditya was seized and subsequently beheaded by Bairam Khan. Hence, the battle concluded in a decisive Mughal victory.

Third Battle of Panipat: Between Whom Was The Third Battle of Panipat Fought?

The third battle of Panipat took place in Panipat on 14 January 1761, somewhere at a place located 60 miles (95.5 km) away from northern Delhi. The third battle of Panipat was fought between a northern expeditionary force of the Maratha Empire and the union of the King of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Durrani (won over the two Indian Muslim friends) - the Rohilla Afghans of the Doab, and Shuja-ud-Daula, the Oudh’s Nawab. 

The third battle of Panipat fought between the Maratha Empire and the unison of Muslim leaders in the 18th century led to ruckus and major changes in the equation of the nation’s power. 

The Third Battle: Background and Reason

After the Mughal Emporer Aurangzeb’s death, there was a sudden rise of the Marathas. The Marathas regained their control in Deccan and won a considerable portion of India

Following this, the decrease was rushed by the intrusion of India by Nader Shah, who likewise removed Takht-I-Taus (the Peacock Throne) and the Kohinoor Diamond in 1739.

Further, Ahmad Shah Durrani made a plan to attack Marathas when his son was driven out of Lahore. Eventually, at the end of 1759, Durrani with his Afghan tribes reached towards Lahore and Delhi and defeated the smaller enemy units.

The two armed forces battled at Karnal and Kunjpura the whole Afghan post was killed or subjugated. The slaughter of the Kunjpura garrison angered Durrani so much that he ordered for crossing the river at any cost to attack the Marathas, while small battles stretched for months and forces from both sides assembled for the last attack as a result, food began running out for the Marathas 

The battle began in the extremely early times on January 14, 1761. Since the Afghan forces were larger in counts, just by the end of the first day, most of the Maratha forces fled, some were killed or imprisoned.

Third Battle of Panipat: Consequence

After the victory, the Afghan troopers wandered wild across the streets of Panipat, killing thousands of innocent Maratha civilians and soldiers.

The women and children kept as slaves in Afghan camps as slaves and children over 14 years of age were beheaded (to cut off the head of) before their own mothers and sisters.

Panipat Battles: Interesting Historical Facts  

• The fourth Battle Of Panipat: A Literacy Campaign in Haryana: The fourth battle of Panipat was held in Haryana, it was an assessment of the performance of the Total Literacy Campaign and was helpful for understanding the challenges involved in building a people's movement for literacy in a social milieu not on the whole conducive to the promotion of literacy.

• Panipat has a historic significance in Haryana, India. This city is titled the “City of Weavers” and “Textile City”. Also, it is known as the “cast-off capital” because of being “the global centre for recycling textiles.”

• Do you know that Panipat district was carved out some time from the Karnal district on 1 November 1989?