Panipat – A name that an Indian, particularly, a Maharashtrian would not love to hear too often. A dark chapter in Indian history, that paved a good way for the British to stronghold the foundation of their imperialistic empire. A bloody battle in which almost at every home in Maharashtra, a scion was making his way to the gates of heaven after displaying his ferocious gallantry against the mighty Afghans.
An awful catastrophe occurred on January 14, 1761, the auspicious Makar Sankranti day. The Third Battle of Panipat took place on this day, and 50-60,000 Marathas were killed. Undoubtedly subjected to horrific torture, another 20-30,000 women and children were kidnapped, sold as slaves, and tortured!
The Backdrop
The Maratha Empire’s expansion into Afghanistan, which pitted it against Ahmad Shah Abdali’s Durrani Empire, is the source of the conflict. The Marathas ruled the sub-continent with a disproportionate amount of authority by 1755. It had an impact on Calcutta, the majority of Northern India, and the Deccan. An expeditionary Maratha force arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1759, and they quickly erected garrisons there and in important Punjabi towns.
The Muslim kings of North India were terrified by the rising of the Marathas. They encouraged Ahmad Shah Abdali to engage in ‘jehad’ against the Marathas under the leadership of Najib-ud-Daulah of Rohilkhand (modern-day Western UP) and Siraj-ud-Daulah of Awadh. Initially, with some hesitation, Abdali agreed to travel to India to take against the Marathas when the offer of Rs 2 Crores was made.
In January 1760, Abdali crossed the Khyber Pass to enter India. The Maratha garrisons in Punjab were vanquished by his soldiers, who then compelled them to leave. Then, in the kingdom of his friend Najib-ud-Daulah, he deployed his army to Anoop Shahr (about 70 km east of Delhi near Saharanpur) and camped there in anticipation of the Marathas.
The entrance of Abdali and the destruction of their garrisons had alarmed the Marathas, and in March 1760, Peshwa Nanasaheb decided to challenge Abdali with a sizable expeditionary force led by Sadashiv Rao Bhau, his brother and his most talented & qualified general, and his son, the 17-year-old Vishwas Rao.
The siege and the decimation of Delhi
On March 7, 1760, the Maratha army, which included about 40,000 cavalry, 15,000 troops, and 200 pieces of artillery, departed from Udgir. Forces from the Holkar and Shinde, from Indore and Gwalior, respectively, joined it along its advance. It needed more administrative assistance despite its magnitude.
The army was instructed to exist off the land as it moved forward, a tactic that resulted in the robbing and plundering of the countryside it crossed and earned it great “antagonism” in its progress northward. Around 15-20000 women, children, and camp followers were also a huge burden on the army, slowing its approach over three months before it finally arrived in Delhi on July 21.
The Marathas quickly overran Delhi and camped there for more than three months. The Yamuna River divided the two armies where Abdali’s army and his allies were located in Meerut and Saharanpur. Despite the frequent patrols and skirmishes, there haven’t been any significant army clashes yet.
Then, towards the end of October, Sadashivrao Bhau wholeheartedly took command of his army and led it away from Delhi in the direction of Kunjpura, a fort on the western bank of the Yamuna that served as a key supply route for Abdali. Over 10,000 Afghans were well entrenched in Kunjpura, but after a fierce assault using both artillery and cavalry that was closely coordinated, the city was taken in under two nights.
Although Abdali and his troops were on the other side of the river, where the Yamuna River was flooded, Abdali was unable to cross to save his men despite being able to see and hear their distress.
The Marathas’ final significant victory came with the fall of Kunjpura on October 18. They could now access Abdali’s supplies and, even better, they could stop him from going back to Afghanistan. Encouraged by this achievement, the Marathas advanced closer to Kurukshetra to obstruct Abdali’s escape route.
Then Abdali executed his brilliant move. On October 25, during a night of heavy downpours, he crossed the swollen Yamuna River. Although more than 200 soldiers were lost in the flood, his entire force crossed in two nights, fully catching the Marathas off guard. The situation had changed. Abdali had shut off the Marathas’ road back to Delhi and the Deccan at this point, leaving them in his wake.
The Marathas erected a camp close to Panipat as their escape routes were barred. The Marathas were surrounded in their camp for three months. They were cut off from their supplies, which led to a widespread spread of disease and famine. Nearly daily skirmishes occurred, resulting in significant deaths on both sides. The Marathas were ill-equipped and unprepared for the winters in North India, which made matters worse as winter approached.
Sadashiv Bhau convened a meeting of his chiefs on January 12 as their numbers were dwindling, and the War Assembly resolved that rather than continue to be besieged, they should launch one savage assault to breach the Afghan defences and return to Delhi, from which they would go to the Deccan.
As a final farewell, ceremonial paan was served. The Quartermaster was then given orders to disperse the remaining food among the troops, and the chieftains left to get ready for the fight. The outcome of the biggest fight in Indian history was already decided.
The subsequent fatal blunders and a ‘Dismal’ Makar Sankranti
The Maratha army left its camp at daybreak on January 14, 1761, to the sounds of conches and ranbakuras. The Afghans had positioned themselves three to four km away from them in battle formation with a force of about 60,000 cavalry, infantry, and artillery.
It was Abdali’s army’s tight-knit, cohesive nature – with the different chiefs held together by Ahmad Shah Abdali’s steely personality – rather than the Afghans’ numerical advantage of almost 20,000 that made the difference. The Marathas, on the other hand, were riven by strife, with their chiefs frequently at odds with one another. As the conflict wore on, the divisions would become more apparent.
A gallant leader named Ibrahim Khan Gardi led the Marathas’ initial onslaught from their left flank; he would go on to become one of the battle’s heroes. Nine battalions were involved in the organised, disciplined attack, with one battalion leading while the others provided fire support. The opposing Afghan right flank suffered severe casualties as the onslaught advanced slowly but steadily. The Marathas then committed their first error.
Now, according to the plan, Gardi’s musketeers were to gain ground in the Afghan lines before the Maratha cavalry launched a flank attack. The Cavalry attacked prematurely, getting ahead of Gardi’s infantry and stopping them from firing even as Gardi’s troops were lurching forward.
Even though the cavalry charge that should have given the Afghans a clear advantage early on failed, a breach in their right flank had been made by noon. In addition to the assault on his left flank, Sadashiv Rao Bhau launched the primary assault on the Afghan centre with the Huzarat, a force of over 20,000 crackmen. He spearheaded the offensive, which broke the Afghan centre into chaos because of its sheer ferocity and momentum.
The Marathas were prepared at noon. The right flank and the centre had been breached. After the Afghan lines were broken, their right flank, led by Holkar and Shinde forces was supposed to launch an attack. However, for some reason, they did not do so. Even when Holkar received a private message from Sadashiv Bhau, they stayed the same. The Marathas paid a price for their right flank’s hesitation to launch an assault.
It provided Abdali with the opportunity to set up his reserved force and pick up everyone who was evacuating the conflict before bringing them back to the front lines (with a few summary murders of those who refused). Additionally, he sent about 10,000 of his reserves to fortify the fraying lines. Any possibility of a Maratha breakthrough was gone by the time the Afghan lines had stabilised at around 2 o’clock.
Abdali launched a counterattack from his left flank behind the Marathas as the Maratha attack fizzled out. His cavalry and “Zamburaks,” camel-mounted swivel cannons, rained a barrage of fire on the Marathas as they began to clump together tightly in front of the Afghan lines. The huddled Maratha infantry suffered a heavy toll from Afghan bullets, and one of them struck Vishwas Rao, the Peshwa’s son, in the head and quickly killed him (unfortunately, a deadly fluke!)
The battle was radically changed when Vishwas passed away. The troops lost heart after witnessing him collapse. To see Vishwas, Sadashiv Bhau disembarked from his elephant, and without his calming influence, the Marathas troops panicked and started to flee the battleground. Abdali launched a second attack on the besieged Marathas in the ensuing disorderly disarray with the help of the remainder of his reserves, swinging in from the sides and back.
The result was a massacre. As the Afghan cavalry tore into them and bullets poured down upon them, they were reduced to smithereens after a day of intense combat. Their right wing, led by the Holkar forces, withdrew from the conflict and disappeared from the scene, retreating first to Delhi and then to their home bases. Carnage ensued for the remainder as they fought valiantly in isolated areas.
In just one day, more than 30-40,000 Maratha troops perished (an additional 20,000 had been lost in clashes earlier in the year). After losing over 30,000 of their own, the enraged Afghans ran berserk in the Maratha camp, massacred the men, and kidnapped and sold the women and children as slaves.
The moon was full that night, and the Marathas who were running were pursued and killed in the open fields near Panipat. In that single day, which has frequently been referred to as “The Bloodiest Day of the 18th Century”, an estimated 60-70,000 people perished.
Only about 15,000 of the estimated 70-80,000 soldiers that ventured out on the expedition managed to return to the Deccan. After the war, Abdali returned to Afghanistan and was handsomely compensated by the Muslim sultans. Soon after the incident, Nanasaheb Peshwa passed away from shock, and Maratha’s influence was now waning.
Its demise paved the way for Indian Imperial rule. Without any significant opposition, the British solidified their position and established 200 years of British rule in India. The tragedy of the conflict may have been that one!
Conclusion, on the “Bravest of the Brave!”
The foundation that was laid by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj gave the Marathas’ future generations divine strength and confidence that they could subjugate every tyrannical power on this planet. The Swarajya, then transformed into a Samrajya by the great Bajirao Peshwa-I, paved the way for the next generation to dominate almost the entire Indian subcontinent in the few years to come.
Panipat was the culmination of it, and nothing more. On paper, it is surely a defeat but it’s a display of the gigantic power that Marathas possessed and they were the only ones at that time who could face the alien invaders and protect the dignity of the great Indian subcontinent.
The Battle of Panipat was a protracted and brutal conflict. Thousands of soldiers lost their lives during the several-hour battle. The Marathas ultimately lost, but they battled valiantly all the way through. At least 27 Maratha commanders, including members of the Gwalior, Dhar, and Dewas Maratha royal houses, the commander in chief Sadashivrao Bhau, and Peshwa Balaji Bajirao’s son Vishwasrao, perished in the conflict.
The Panipat conflict is an excellent illustration of national integration as well. Fighting for the Maratha banner against a Muslim, Ibrahim Khan Gardi and his Muslim soldiers gave their lives in the battle. The famous Maratha Sardar Mahadji Shinde was then saved by Muslim Rana Khan, who along with Madhavrao Peshwa, later restored the lost Maratha glory in the north and rose to become Shah Alam’s protector.
Shinde eventually started referring to Rana Khan as “Bhai” going forward. In the princely state formed by Shinde, Gwalior, where until independence Hindu children would wear green clothing on Muslim festivals and vice versa, the outcome of these examples of interreligious peace was clear.
The description of the Panipat battle itself can move any Indian. Ahmad Shah Abdali himself paid a glowing tribute to his rivals when in a letter to then Jaipur ruler, Madhav Singh, he wrote:
“The Marathas fought with the greatest valour which was beyond the capacity of other races… These dauntless blood-shedders didn’t fall short in fighting and doing glorious deeds… But ultimately we won with our superior tactics and with the grace of the Divine Lord”.
The Marathas’ valour in the Battle of Panipat is evidence of their bravery and tenacity. Even when the odds were against them, they were prepared to stand up for what they believed in. Their legacy of bravery and selflessness continues to motivate others today.
They sacrificed everything for their cause while fighting against insurmountable odds. They left behind a legacy of bravery and selflessness that serves as an example to everyone who knows their tale.