Second battle of Panipat

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Second battle of Panipat
Depiction of the Second Battle of Panipat in Akbarnama (1590s)
Depiction of the Second Battle of Panipat in Akbarnama (1590s)
date November 5, 1556
place Panipat , Haryana ( India )
output Victory of the Mughal Empire
Parties to the conflict

Mughal Empire

Surid Empire

Commander

Bairam Khan

Hemu


The Second Battle of Panipat was fought on November 5, 1556 between the troops of the Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar under general Bairam Khan and the troops of the Afghan ruler ʿAdil Shāh Sūr under his general Hemu near Panipat . It was a victorious decisive battle through which the Mughals were able to re-establish themselves as rulers in India.

The backgrounds

After Humayun had recaptured Kandahar and Kabul with the help of the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp , the death of Islam Shah Sur and the ensuing turmoil offered him an opportunity to penetrate into northern India. In February 1555 he was able to take Lahore . Sikandar Shah Sur, one of the three princes of the Sur clan who fought for the throne of the empire, opposed the Mughal troops. After a first defeat in Machhiwara , Sikandar was defeated again in the battle of Sirhind on June 22, 1555 and fled to the mountains of Siwalik . With this victory, Delhi and Agra , which Sikandar Shah had snatched from his cousin Ibrahim Shah only a few weeks earlier , now belonged to Humayun's sphere of influence. Humayun died about six months after he had retaken Delhi. His thirteen-year-old son Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar ascended the Mughal throne on February 14, 1556, but was initially under the tutelage of General Bairam Khan due to his young age. In order to prevent further advance of the Mughals and to expand their own sphere of influence, the troops of Muhammad ʿAdil Shah now moved to Agra under the leadership of his general Hemu. The commander of the city was unable to withstand the advancing army and retreated with his men to Delhi, pursued by Hemu. In Tughluqabad there was a fight on October 7, 1556, in which the Mughal troops under the leadership of Tardi Beg Khan initially believed themselves victorious and their vanguard pursued the fugitives and plundered the opposing camp. Due to their distance from the rest of the army, they could not come to the aid of the remaining parts of the army when they were surprisingly attacked and defeated again by Hemu and a cunningly held back army. Delhi was now in the hands of Hemus, who at that time is said to have set himself up to become a “Raja Bikramajit” and thus to become king. There are different opinions on the question of how Hemu's title “Raja Bikramajit” is to be understood. IH Siddiqui is of the opinion that Hemu has by no means claimed royal dignity for himself, but that this title was awarded to him by ʿAdil Shāh Sūr before his victory in Tughluqabad in recognition of his victorious campaigns. This title was later awarded by the Mughals as a sign of special recognition. Accordingly, Hemu did not undertake the campaign on his own behalf, but continued as the general of ʿAdil Shāhs. But there are also contemporary authors who report that Hemu adorned himself with the title and only nominally retained the sovereignty of ʿAdil Shāh. We learn of the Afghan officers' dissatisfaction with his arrogance in Badauni's history. Whatever ambition Hemu had, he could not carry it out for the remaining 30 days of his life.

The battle

In view of Hemus' overwhelming power, the officers of the Mughal Army urged a retreat to Kabul. However, Bairam Khan and Akbar decided to bet everything on one card and face the Afghan forces. On November 5, the armies met about six kilometers northwest of the historic battlefield of Panipat, where thirty years earlier Akbar's grandfather Babur had defeated the ruler of the Sultanate of Delhi in the First Battle of Panipat . Even before the actual battle began, a vanguard of the Mughal Army managed to capture all of the enemy artillery and thereby decisively improve their position. Still, they were significantly outnumbered. They had 10,000 soldiers, of whom, according to Abu 'l-Fazl, only 5000 are said to have actually fought. For the Mughal army, ʿAli Quli Khan Shaibani, who later became Khan-i Zaman, held the lead in the center, with Sikandar Khan Uzbak on the right and Abdullah Khan Uzbak on the left. The vanguard took over Husain Quli Beg and Shah Quli Mahram. The Mughal fighters apparently did not use the captured artillery for themselves. Their greatest potential were mounted archers who tried to attack from the sides and attacked the enemy with a shower of arrows. Akbar and Bairam Khan were at a safe distance of several kilometers and were informed of the progress of the battle by messengers. The opposite side is said to have had over 30,000 horsemen and 500 war elephants. Hemu personally watched the battle on an elephant in midfield, while Shadi Khan Kahar led the right flank and Hemu's nephew Ramya led the left. The elephants were the main weapon for the Surid army. With them they tried to brace the Mughal troops. With the loss of several generals, Hemu himself took the lead on the left flank when an arrow hit him in the eye and the arrowhead came out at the back of the head. When Hemu collapsed unconscious in the defense tower of the elephant, his troops panicked and were eventually defeated by the Mughal fighters. Shah Quli Khan led the unconscious man to Akbar on his elephant. Bairam Khan encouraged Akbar to kill Hemu himself and in this way to earn the title of Ghazi . But Akbar refused to kill a defenseless and wounded enemy. Bairam Khan eventually beheaded Hemu himself. The head was sent to Kabul, where it was hung outside Delhi Darwaza, while his body was hung in the Purana Qila Citadel in Delhi.

aftermath

Two days after the battle, Akbar came to Panipat and ordered a minaret to be built out of the heads of those killed . A picture of it is on display in the Panipat Wars Museum in Panipat. Akbar then conquered Agra and Delhi without significant resistance. After he got his capital back, he moved to Punjab when he got the news that Sikandar Shah Suri ( Adil Shah Suri's brother-in-law) was conducting a campaign there. He was repulsed by Akbar and went into exile in Bengal. Prisoners were taken after the Mughal siege of Mankot Fortress . The Second Battle of Panipat in 1556 was decisive. With this victory Akbar restored the power of the Mughal Empire and its dynasty. It marked the fate of the House of Timur as the ruling house of India.

Akbar used war elephants, light cavalry , cannons , musketeers and pioneers in his campaigns . His troops were kept in practice by driven hunts even in peacetime. At times Akbar fought at the risk of his own life. There are many examples of great personal courage. Akbar's basic strategy was to treat defeated opponents generously in order to retain them.

literature

  • Abu-l-Fazl: The Akbarnama . Translated from the Persian by H. Beveridge. Vol. I and II Bound in One. Low Price Publications, Delhi 1993. (Repr. 1902)
  • al-Badaoni: Muntakhabu-t-Tawarikh . Translated from the original Persian and edited by George SA Ranking. Revised and enlarged by BP Ambashthya. Renaissance Publishing House, Delhi 1986. (Repr.)
  • Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. (= EI²) Vol. IX. Brill, Leiden 1997. ISBN 90 04 10422 4 .
  • Haig, Sir Wolseley and Burn, Sir Richard: The Cambridge History of India . Vol. IV The Mughul Period. S.Chand & Company, New Delhi 1987. (Repr. 1937).
  • Nizamu-d Din Ahmad, Bakhshi: Tabakat-i Akbari . The History of India as told by its own Historians. Ed. by John Dowson. Part One. Susil Gupta, Calcutta 1962. (Repr. 1871)
  • Richards, John F .: The New Cambridge History of India. 1.5 The Mughal Empire. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge u. a. 1993. ISBN 978-0521251198 .
  • Sarkar, Jadunath: Military History of India. Orient Longmans, Calcutta 1960.
  • Shāh Nawāz Khān: The Maāthir-ul-umarā. Vol. 1. Translated by H. Beveridge. Low Price Publications, Delhi 1999. ISBN 81-7536-160-3 . (Repr. 1941)
  • Siddiqui, Iqtidar Husain: Sher Shah Sur and his Dynasty. Publication Scheme, Jaipur (India) 1995. ISBN 81-85 263-97-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Akbarnāma Volume I, pp. 625-27.
  2. ↑ Akbarnāma Volume II, pp. 48–51
  3. ↑ Richards 1993, pp. 12-13. Haig and Burn 1957, pp. 70-72.
  4. ↑ Siddiqui relies on the Tarikh-i Daudi of Abd Allah. IH Siddiqui 1995, p. 205 and FN 6.
  5. ↑ Shāh Nawāz Khān, pp. 414-414. Digitized
  6. ↑ Akbar-nāma I, p. 618. Digitized
  7. ↑ Badauni II, p. 7 digital copy ; Nizam ud-Din Ahmad, p. 74, writes that he took the title of Raja Bikramajit himself.
  8. ↑ Sarkar 1960, p. 67. Digitized
  9. ↑ Akbar-nāma II, p. 61.
  10. ↑ Sand p. 53.
  11. ↑ Sarkar p. 67f.
  12. ↑ Akbar-nāma II; P. 63f. Digitized Badauni II: 7, which is based on Nizam ud-Din Ahmad (I, p. 75), speaks of 1500 war elephants.
  13. ↑ Akbar-nama II, p. 64. Shah Nawaz Khan, Vol. 2, p. 774.
  14. ↑ Abu 'l-Fazl: Akbar-nama , Vol. II, p. 85.
  15. ↑ Abdu-L-Qadir ibn-i-Muluk Shah, known as al-Badaoni: Muntakhabu-t-Tawarikh. Translated from the original Persian and Edited by WH Lowe. Renaissance Publishing House, Delhi 1986. Vol. II, p. 10. Abu 'l-Fazl: Akbar-nama. Translation by H. Beveridge, Vol. 2, p. 63.
  16. ↑ Abu 'l-Fazl: Akbar-nama . Vol. 2, pp. 75-77 and pp. 89-91.