Third Battle of Panipat
Third Battle of Panipat
| date | January 14, 1761 |
|---|---|
| place | Panipat , Haryana (India) |
| output | Victory of the Afghans |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| around 75,000 men | around 64,000 men |
| losses | |
|
• around 20,000 killed and wounded |
• around 30,000 dead |
The Third Battle of Panipat was born on 14 January 1761 between the Afghan Durrani under Ahmad Shah Durrani commanded, of the approximately 75,000 men, and the Indian Marathenreich under Sadashivrao Bhau commanded the 64,000 men, beaten. The battlefield was near the city of Panipat in what is now the Indian state of Haryana . The First Battle of Panipat and 1556 the Second Battle of Panipat had already taken place here in 1526 .
losses
The battle is considered to be one of the bloodiest in Asian history when measured against the losses of a single day of fighting. In addition to the Marathi fighters who fell in battle and were killed while fleeing, up to 30,000 other victims came on the Indian side, including prisoners after the battle, but above all non-combatants who had accompanied the Marathi army. They were all massacred by the victors after the battle. This massacre created a kind of psychological outlet for the Afghans for the hardships of the campaign and the extremely hard-won victory. About 20,000 other non-combatants, including many women, were enslaved by the victors or sold as slaves. If you include them in the Indian list of casualties, the number of people affected by the battle rises to around 100,000.
consequences
After extensive pillaging of the surrounding area, the Afghans returned home with rich booty. The Marathon Empire lost control of northern India for about ten years. The severe defeat of the Marathas helped the British East India Company indirectly to pave the way to the complete colonization of India, since the Marathas were militarily weakened.
literature
- Tony Jacques: Dictionary of Battles And Sieges. A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity through the Twenty-first Century. Volume 2: F - O. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport CT et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-313-33538-9 , p. 774, (limited online version Google Books) .
- George Bruce Malleson: History of Afghanistan, from the Earliest Period to the Outbreak of the War of 1878. WH Allen & Co., London 1878, pp. 289-290, (limited online version Google Books) .
- Jaswant L. Mehta: Advanced Study in the History of Modern India, 1707-1813. New Dawn Press, New Delhi et al. 2005, ISBN 1-932705-54-6 , pp. 279-319, (limited online version Google Books) .
Web links
- Panipat, Battles of. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Retrieved May 24, 2007.