User:Joyson Konkani/Third Battle of Panipat
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((Use dmy dates|date=December 2015)) ((Use Indian English|date=December 2015))
Third Battle of Panipat | |||||||||
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The Third Battle of Panipat, 14 January 1761, Hafiz Rahmat Khan, standing right of Ahmad Shah Abdali, who is shown sitting on a brown horse. | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Supported by: |
Supported by: | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Ahmad Shah Durrani (Shah of Durrani Empire) Shuja-ud-Daula Najib-ud-Daula Nawab Saadullah Khan of Rohilkhand Nawab Faizullah Khan of Rohilkhand |
Sadashivrao Bhau (commander-in-chief of Maratha Army) † Vishwasrao Bhat † Malharrao Holkar Mahadji Shinde (WIA) Ibrahim Khan Gardi † Jankoji Shinde (POW) Shamsher Bahadur (Krishna Rao Bhat) (DOW) Damaji Gaikwad Yashwant Rao Puar (Pawar; Infantry & Cavalry) † Shri. Arvandekar Sidoji Gharge Nawab Izzat Khan of Kurwai (WIA) (later defected) | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
30,000 regular cavalry[3] 15,000 irregular cavalry 32,000 infantry[3] |
10,000 regular cavalry[3] 4,000 irregular cavalry 10,000 infantry[3] (divided to 9 battalions of Gardi rifle infantry) The force was accompanied by 200,000 non-combatants (pilgrims and camp-followers) and 200,000 non combatants.[4] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
20,000 killed or wounded[3][5][6] |
30,000 killed in battle[3] 10,000 killed while retreating[3] 10,000 missing[3] Another 40,000–70,000 non-combatants massacred following the battle.[5][6] |
The Third Battle of Panipat took place on 14 January 1761 at Panipat, about 60 miles (97 km) north of Delhi, between a northern expeditionary force of the Maratha Empire and invading forces of the King of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Abdali, supported by two Indian allies—the Rohillas Najib-ud-daulah, Afghans of the Doab region and Shuja-ud-Daula-the Nawab of Awadh. Militarily, the battle pitted the artillery and cavalry of the Marathas against the heavy cavalry and mounted artillery (zamburak and jezail) of the Afghans and Rohillas led by Abdali and Najib-ud-Daulah, both ethnic Afghans. The battle is considered one of the largest and most eventful fought in the 18th century,[7] and has perhaps the largest number of fatalities in a single day reported in a classic formation battle between two armies.
The specific site of the battle itself is disputed by historians, but most consider it to have occurred somewhere near modern-day Kaalaa Aamb and Sanauli Road. The battle lasted for several days and involved over 125,000 troops. Protracted skirmishes occurred, with losses and gains on both sides. The forces led by Ahmad Shah Durrani came out victorious after destroying several Maratha flanks. The extent of the losses on both sides is heavily disputed by historians, but it is believed that between 60,000–70,000 were killed in fighting, while the numbers of injured and prisoners taken vary considerably. According to the single best eyewitness chronicle—the bakhar by Shuja-ud-Daulah's Diwan Kashi Raj—about 40,000 Maratha prisoners were slaughtered in cold blood the day after the battle.[6] Grant Duff includes an interview of a survivor of these massacres in his History of the Marathas and generally corroborates this number. Shejwalkar, whose monograph Panipat 1761 is often regarded as the single best secondary source on the battle, says that "not less than 100,000 Marathas (soldiers and non-combatants) perished during and after the battle."[5]
The result of the battle was the halting of further Maratha advances in the north, and destabilization of their territories, for roughly ten years. This period is marked by the rule of Peshwa Madhavrao, who is credited with the revival of Maratha domination following the defeat at Panipat. In 1771, ten years after Panipat, he sent a large Maratha army into northern India in an expedition that was meant to re-establish Maratha domination in that area and punish refractory powers that had either sided with the Afghans, such as the Rohillas, or had shaken off Maratha domination after Panipat.[8] But their success was short lived. Crippled by Madhavrao's untimely death at the age of 28, infighting ensued among Maratha chiefs soon after, and they ultimately met their final blow at the hands of the British in 1818.[9]