Panipat - A battle that got away

India as we all know is famous for it’s culture, it’s heritage, and most importantly for giving birth to famous warriors – the Sikhs, the Jats, the Rajputs, the Peshwas. All these warriors may be of a different clan but they certainly did have one thing in common, they had a common goal - to conquer the whole of India, to defeat all others and to be the most superior power in the land. All of them would be engaged in countless wars throughout their lives but the battle that I am talking about is a special one. It was the one battle that shook the whole nation. Now why is it so special, I will tell you.

First let us get familiar with the basic facts that we need to know in order to proceed. The third battle of Panipat was fought on 14 January, 1761 between the Durrani army of the then ruler of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Durrani or as we know him, Ahmad Shah Abdali and the Maratha army led by Sadashivrao Bhau, accompanied by Vishwasrao Bhatt. The Durrani army was supported by the Rohilla Najib-ud-daulah, the Nawab of Awadh – Shuja-ud-Daula and the Afghans of the Doab region, while the Marathas were loyally served by Malharrao Holkar, Mahadji Shinde, Ibrahim Khan Gardi, Yashwant Rao Pawar, Tukoji Rao Shinde and a few more generals. The Afghans had 41,800 cavalry while the Maratha cavalry consisted of 45,000- 55,000. That is why, it is surprising that even though the Mughals or the Afghan were great warriors, it was beyond the capacity of the Durrani army or Ahmad Shah Abdali to fight the Marathas.

Now you must be thinking that even with so much power and so many resources in hand, how on earth did the Marathas lose the battle? Well, first of all, they lost majorly due to the fact that they were betrayed by their own allies, their own men or as we say due to black sheep in their own army. Now, according to Ashutosh Gowariker’s film, Panipat – The great betrayal, the Marathas were betrayed by the ruler of Arradhkpur who was secretly helping the Durrani army. The third battle of Panipat actually slipped from the hands of the Marathas mainly due to two reasons, one- as stated above, due to the presence of black sheep in the army and secondly after the death of Vishwasrao Bhatt which the historians estimate at about 2:00 p.m. the same day. Another reason stated by the historians is that there were many commoners in the army of the Peshwas due to which those people ended up being slaughtered in cold blood by the Afghans. This can also mean that the Marathas were fighting the war under a lot of pressure, firstly because they had to bad the victory and win over Abdali, secondly because they also had to protect the commoners’ lives.

But the final question is, why was the battle fought? This battle was actually fought, merely because the Indian Muslims had invited Abdali to help them to teach the Marathas a lesson. Ahmad Shah Abdali, even after winning the battle, did not sit on the throne of Delhi, he did not take over the territory of the Marathas. Why? How?

Let me tell you about a very important piece of evidence that further proves this statement. On 10th February, 1761, Ahmad Shah Abdali wrote a letter to the Peshwa of Pune saying that he is greatly sorry for the loss of the Peshwa’s son Vishwasrao and brother Sadashivrao Bhau. He said that he was unwilling to fight that battle but he had to because Bhau had started it. He also asked the Peshwa to continue hid guardianship of Delhi as before, and to reinstate Shah Alam on Delhi’s throne. All that Abdali wanted was peace and friendship between them.

Now coming to my favourite part, why is this battle a special one? It is a special one because even though the Marathas lost the battle, they won, even though Abdali won the battle, he lost. Even though this battle turned out to be a bloody military debacle for the Marathas, they did not lose their power, they earned respect and proved to the world that they were very remarkable and courageous warriors as Abdali said in his letter. Most of India was under the control of the Marathas at that time, even though they lost the battle, their successors were able to carry forward their legacy along with the power they had. As a plus point, even Abdali did not return to India ever again.

Written by Vedika Arya.