First battle of panipat>>>>>
The first battle of Panipat took place in northern India, and marked the beginning of the Mughal Empire. This was one of the earliest battles involving gunpowder firearms and field artillery.
In 1526, the forces of Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, the ruler of Kabul and of Timurid descent, defeated the much larger army of Ibrahim Lodhi, the ruler of the large North Indian Delhi Sultanate.
The battle was fought on April 21 near the small village of Panipat, in the present day Indian state of Haryana, an area that has been the site of a number of decisive battles for the control of Northern India since the twelfth century.
It is estimated that Babur's forces numbered about 15,000 men and he had between 15 to 20 pieces of field artillery, however Lodhi had around 100,000 men, though that number included camp followers, while the fighting force was around 30,000 to 40,000 men in total, along with at least 100 war elephants. Babur's guns proved decisive in battle, firstly because Ibrahim Lodhi lacked any field artillery but also because elephants are scared of guns. Babur could use the guns to scare the elephants away, causing them to trample Lodhi's own men. Babur was an inspirational leader of men and commanded a well disciplined army.
Ibrahim Lodhi died on the field of battle, abandoned by his feudatories and generals (many of whom were mercenaries), most of whom would change their allegiance to the new master of Delhi.
The battle marked the foundation of the Mughal Empire in India. The word Mughal means Mongol and alludes to the Turkic and Mongol origins of Babur and his officers, though the majority of his troops were of Pathan, Indian and mixed Central Asian descent.
Second battle of panipat>>>>
The Second Battle of Panipat was fought between the forces of Samrat Hem Chander Vikramaditya, popularly called Hemu, and the army of Mughal emperor Akbar, on November 5, 1556.On January 24, 1556, Mughal ruler Humayun died and was succeeded by his son, Akbar who was only thirteen years old. On February 14, 1556, in a garden at Kalanaur in Punjab, Akbar was enthroned as the king. At the time of his accession to the throne, the Mughal rule was confined to Kabul, Kandahar, parts of Delhi and Punjab. Akbar was then campaigning in Kabul with his guardian, Bairam Khan.
Hem Chander or Hemu was the Prime minister and military chief of Adil Shah Suri, who ruled over a region east of Delhi established at Chunar and was seeking to expel the Mughals from Delhi. At the time of Humayun's death, Hemu had quelled a rebellion in Bengal. He made his intentions of winning Delhi for himself known to his commanders. He then started a campaign winning battles throughout northern India. When he attacked Agra, the commander of the Mughal forces in Agra ran away, leaving the state without a fight. A large area of Ettawah, Kalpi and Agra states had come under Hemu's control.
Hemu then moved towards Delhi and stationed his forces outside the city at Tughlaqabad. On October 6, 1556, his army encountered Mughal resistance. After a fierce fight Akbar's forces were ousted, and Tardi Beg, the commander of the Mughal forces, ran away, allowing Hemu to capture Delhi without much difficulty. Around 3000 army personnel were killed. Hemu had himself coronated at Purana Quila on October 7, 1556, and was bestowed the title of Samrat Vikramaditya.
Third battle of panipat>>>>
The Third Battle of Panipat took place on January 14, 1761 at Panipat (Haryana State, India), situated at 29.39° N 76.97° E about 80 miles (130 km) north of Delhi. The battle pitted the French-supplied and trained artillery of the Marathas against the light cavalry of the Afghans led by Ahmad Shah Durrani, an ethnic Pashtun, also known as 'Ahmad Shah Abdali'.
The decline of the Mughal Empire had led to territorial gains for the Maratha Confederacy. Ahmad Shah Abdali, amongst others, was unwilling to allow the Marathas' gains to go unchecked. In 1759, he raised an army from the Pashtun tribes with help from the Baloch people and made several gains against the smaller garrisons. The Marathas, under the command of Sadashivrao Bhau, responded by gathering an army of 100,000 people with which they ransacked the Mughal capital of Delhi. There followed a series of skirmishes along the banks of the river Yamuna at Karnal and Kunjpura 29.42.57° N 77.4.49° E which eventually turned into a two-month-long siege led by Abdali against the Marathas.
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 men. 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 numbers of the injured and prisoners taken vary considerably. The victorious army led by Durrani oversaw the cremation of the bodies of Vishwas Rao and the Bhau. Many Maratha generals were subsequently tortured and executed by the victorious army. The overriding legacy of the battle was the halting of the Maratha advances in the North.
