The Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 was a pivotal event in Indian history, marking the decline of the Mughal Empire and the rise of new powers like the Afghan Durrani and Indian Maratha Empires. Despite internal strife and external threats, the Mughals remained significant under Aurangzeb's rule in the late 17th century. However, after his death, succession crises led to a weakened empire. The Marathas expanded their territory at the Mughals' expense, while Nader Shah Afshar of Persia invaded India, further destabilizing the region. Ahmad Shah Abdali, a commander under Nader Shah, later established an independent kingdom in Afghanistan and invaded India multiple times, looting Delhi and other regions.
The Marathas continued to grow, but their expansion brought them into conflict with Abdali's forces. Despite initial successes, the Marathas faced defeat at Panipat against Abdali's well-coordinated army. The battle resulted in significant Maratha casualties and loss of control over northern India. Although Abdali won, he couldn't capitalize on his victory and retreated to Afghanistan. The Marathas eventually regained power in the north but were later weakened by internal conflicts. Ultimately, the British ended Maratha rule and Indian independence in 1818, marking a new era for India.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The Mughal Empire reached its zenith during the rule of Muhi-ud-Din Muhammad, also known as Aurangzeb, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
2. Under Aurangzeb's rule, the Mughal Empire expanded greatly, encompassing almost the entirety of the Indian Subcontinent.
3. The Mughal economy also flourished during this time, with the Mughals overtaking Qing China as the world's largest manufacturer and economy.
4. Aurangzeb's rule was not without problems, and the Empire was overextended, leading to widespread dissent among the population and nobility.
5. In 1707, Aurangzeb was succeeded by his son, Bahadur Shah I, who proved to be less capable than his father.
6. The decline of the Mughal Empire was exacerbated after Bahadur Shah I's death in 1712, leading to a decade of succession crises.
7. In 1719, Muhammad Shah captured the throne, ending the succession crisis, but his lengthy reign did not bring stability to the Empire.
8. During Muhammad Shah's rule, parts of the Empire gained significant autonomy or became functionally independent.
9. By 1724, the Nizam of Hyderabad, Asaf Jah I, had defeated two Mughal armies and made his realm independent in all but name.
10. In 1726, Punjab became de facto independent, followed by Awadh and Bengal, which also slipped away from Mughal control.
11. The Maratha state began to expand and capture Mughal forts in the Deccan during Muhammad Shah's rule.
12. Under the leadership of Baji Rao I, the Marathas expanded greatly at the Mughals' expense during the next few decades.
13. In the early 1720s, Maratha armies invaded Gujarat and subjugated parts of it, although their hold on the area remained weak.
14. The Marathas defeated Nizam-ul-Mulk's forces at Palkhed in 1728 and forced him to pay tribute and acknowledge Maratha right to collect tribute in the disputed areas.
15. The implications of the Battle of Palkhed were far more important than the immediate results, proving the superiority of Maratha forces.
16. The knowledge learned from Palkhed made the conquest of Malwa relatively easy after that point.
17. The Marathas spent most of the 1730s involved in minor campaigns and consolidating their newfound power.
18. The only larger campaign, in 1737, was indecisive, even though Baji Rao attacked Delhi and held the Emperor for ransom.
19. In 1739, Nader Shah decisively defeated a numerically superior Mughal army at the Battle of Karnal and captured the Mughal Emperor.
20. A prominent commander in the Iranian army during the invasion of India was Ahmad Shah Abdali, a young nobleman of Pashto origin.
21. In 1748, Nader Shah's assassination created a power vacuum in Persia, and Ahmad Shah Abdali used this chance to take his army into Afghanistan and establish his own independent Kingdom.
22. In the same year, Abdali, now called Durrani, invaded the Mughal Empire and plundered the prosperous city of Lahore.
23. The Afghans successfully invaded India three times in the next decade, conquering the Indus valley down to Sindh and all of Punjab.
24. Durrani ravaged Delhi and many other prosperous regions within the Mughal Empire, allegedly taking some Mughal princesses as slaves.
25. European powers, especially the British, were gaining more of a foothold on the subcontinent, especially its coastal regions, after the Battle of Plassey in 1757.
26. The Marathas continued their expansion during much of the 1750s, with most of Northern India falling under their control.
27. This brought them into conflict with the Rohillas, and later their allies, the Afghans.
28. The Marathas launched an incursion into Punjab in 1759, but retreated later that year due to a Sikh revolt.
29. In 1759, the grand vizier of the Mughal Empire removed Emperor Alamgir from the throne and replaced him with the more easily controllable Jahan Shah III.
30. Alamgir, wishing to recapture his throne, wrote a letter to Ahmad Shah and asked him for protection and to drive back the Marathas.
31. With the Marathas away from Delhi, Durrani marched southwards and laid siege to various forts in Rajasthan.
32. Durrani's envoys were actively engaged in securing allies for the upcoming battles with the Marathas, including the Oudh State in Lucknow.
33. The Maratha and Durrani leaders tried to make peace for months, but both sides were unwilling to make any concessions.
34. In the summer of 1760, Sadashiv Rao, the proud and stubborn leader of the Maratha forces, captured Delhi.
35. The monsoon season was hard on the large Maratha army, with many of their horses and men dying due to disease, and they were running out of funds.
36. With his men starving, Sadashiv Rao decided to capture the well-provisioned fort of Kunjpura, some 100km north of Delhi.
37. The fort was taken relatively easily, and the Afghan commanders were executed.
38. Afterwards, Sadashiv Rao moved his army to Panipat and fortified his position there.
39. Durrani did not have it any better, as he was virtually unable to communicate with the heartland of his Empire, Afghanistan, because the Sikhs held Punjab.
40. The Afghan army was also starving, and foraging devastated the surrounding areas.
41. Enraged after hearing of the brutal way in which the Marathas took Kunjpura, Ahmad Shah sent scouts to find a suitable crossing point over the overflowing Jamuna river.
42. On the 27th of October, Afghan forces crossed the river, and on the 31st, Durrani arrived at Sambhalka.
43. The two commanders were finally face to face, and Ahmad Shah ordered his army to dig trenches and fortify their position.
44. The Maratha army, under Sadashiv Rao, had around 45,000 troops, while the Afghan forces, led by Ahmad Shah, had around 60,000 strong, with a large part of those forces being from the Oudh and Rohilla states.
45. The Shah's own troops numbered around 42,000, with 28,000 heavy Afghan cavalry, 10,000 infantry, 40 cannons, and 200 camel-mounted swivel guns.
46. The Maratha numbers added up to 45,000, with the vast majority of the army consisting of cavalry and some 8,000 elite musketeers under Ibrahim Gardi.
47. The battle began on the morning of the 14th of January 1761 with artillery volleys from both sides.
48. The Maratha artillery was effective, but the lighter camel-mounted swivels of the Afghans dealt many more casualties and even disabled some of the Maratha guns.
49. A massive charge of the elite Maratha cavalry almost broke through the Afghan lines, but the momentum of their charge was not maintained for long, and the fighting drew to a stalemate.
50. Ahmad Shah observed the battle from 2km away and kept regular lines of communication between the battlefield commanders and himself.
51. He sent around 3,000 men from his reserve to aid the Rohillas and another 4,000 to reinforce Vali Khan.
52. This proved to be the crucial point of the battle, as Sadashiv Rao neither had any reserves nor did he keep any contact with his commanders.
53. The Afghan forces, led by Najib-ud Daula, started a massive offensive against the Maratha forces, and the momentum of the battle started to shift.
54. The Maratha center was under constant fire from all sides, and all semblance of order broke down in the Maratha center.
55. Sadashiv Rao, though wounded three times, fought bravely before he, too, was killed.
56. The final nail in the coffin for the Marathas was the slaughter or routing of the rest of their forces.
57. The Afghan forces chased the fleeing Marathas and slaughtered many during the retreat.
58. Accounts regarding the number of casualties vary depending on the sources, though modern estimates agree that the Maratha losses were around 30,000.
59. Over 20,000 of the non-combatants were enslaved, and the Afghans also took 700 elephants and thousands of horses and camels.
60. The Afghans lost between 10,000 and 20,000 men, most of whom were from the Rohilla or Oudh state.
61. The peace treaty was fairly mild, with the Marathas losing control over parts of Northern India and recognizing Alam II as Mughal Emperor.
62. Durrani's position was not enviable, as he was unable to follow up on this victory and quickly retreated to Afghanistan.
63. In the following decades, the Afghans and Rohillas struggled with the Sikhs in Punjab and failed to capitalize on their new position.
64. The Marathas under Madhav Rao began a revival and expanded their influence once again over the North.
65. Decentralization and infighting among Maratha nobles severely weakened the Empire in the decades after Madhav Rao's untimely death.
66. The Maratha Empire, as well as Indian independence, met their ends at the hands of the British in 1818, ushering in a new age for India.