The Bloody Markar Sankranti: 1761

Today is 14th January, a day of Makar Sankranti, reminds me the day, when India fought the most dreadful battle 'The Third Battle Of Panipat' in 1761. It is recognized as the Blackest day in the Indian History. The battle was fought between The Marathas under the Leadership of Sadashiv Rao Bhau and the Afghans under Ahmed Shah Abdali (aka Ahmed Shah Durrani) where the Marathas were defeated and?the Maratha Empire received a death blow from which it could never really recover.

It all started in the year 1759, when the Marathas were the most powerful empire stretching from Attock to the Deccan and they had established their garrisons in Peshawar and the major cities of Punjab. The rise of the Marathas was viewed with fear by many rulers of North India especially Najib-ud-Daulah aka Najib Khan Rohilla, Subedar of Rohilkhand and Mir Bakshi in the Mughal court. Dreaming to demolish Maratha power and gain access to supreme power in North India from Punjab to Awadh, he invited Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah Abdali to war against The Marathas. Abdali entered India through the Khyber Pass, Peshawar. In this was his Fifth Invasion. His armies brushed aside the Maratha garrisons in Attock & Punjab and forced them to withdraw. On 10th January, 1760, Najib Khan attacked the Scindias (Shinde) of Maratha Confederacy who were camping in Barari Ghat. In this Battle, Dattaji Rao Schindia was killed. Through this, Najib proved his loyalty to Abdali and made a clear passage to Delhi.

The arrival of Abdali, the defeat of their garrisons and the death of Dattaji Scindia had worried the Marathas and in March 1760, the Peshwa Nanasaheb aka Balaji Baji Rao, decided to send a large expeditionary force under the leadership of his cousin Sadashiv Rao Bhau along with his step-brother Shamsher Bahadur and his own son, the 21 year old Vishwas Rao to stop Abdali.?The Maratha army left Shaniwar Wada on 7th March 1760, with an army of around 75,000, along with 'Huzurat' forces & 10,000 Gardi forces under Ibrahim Khan Gardi who was the artillery expert, and 200 pieces of cannon. They were joined by Malhar Rao Holkars of Indore, Jankoji Scindia of Gwalior & his uncle Mahadji Scindia of Ujjain and forces of Gaikwad?and the Bundele strengthening their army to around 1,00,000. The army was also accompanied by another 1-1.5 lakhs ladies and children of Sardars and soldiers and pilgrims, which slowed the advance of the army.

After 3 months of slow movement, on 21st July, 1760, the Marathas reached Delhi. They also made ties with Jat Raja Suraj Mal of Bharatpur to assist them in the war against the foreign invader. At that time Afghans were camping in Rohilkhand on the other side of Yamuna River and making ties with other muslim rulers of North India especially with Nawab Suja-ud-Daulah of Awadh. Sadashiv started making preparations to attack Delhi.

On 1st August,1760, the Maratha and the Jat forces attacked and captured Delhi and took the city the next day in a battle in which artillery units were crucial in destroying the fortifications of Durrani forces (Afghan forces). When Abdali got news of Delhi captured by The Marathas from an Afghan soldier who survived from the attack, he and his allies reached Saharanpur (near Delhi). Both the armies came face to face but were separated by the Yamuna River and due to heavy rainfall it was swollen in flood and difficult to cross. Though patrolling and skirmishes were frequent but no major clash of arms took place.

Sadashiv Rao Bhau found only a little supplies in Delhi for his forces. He was dependent on the Jats for further supplies. But due to non-co-operation between Bhau and Raja Suraj Mal had resulted in Jats not to support Marathas and decided to break ties in the middle. When the ration supplies got diminished at the end of August, Bhau decided to led his army out of Delhi and moved towards Kunjpura, a fortress on the west bank of the Yamuna which was a major supply hub of Abdali. Kunjpura was strongly held with over 15,000 Afghans and was difficult to penetrate but was captured due to excellent artillery tactics used by Ibrahim Khan and his Gardi soldiers and intense attack by Maratha cavalry. The entire garrison of Durrani was killed. Some of Abdali's best generals lost their lives.

Ahmad Shah, encamped on the east bank of the Yamuna River, which was swollen by rains, was powerless to aid the his garrison. The massacre of the Kunjpura garrison angered Abdali and ordered his army to cross the river at any cost. On a rain-swept night on 17 October 1760, after taking calculated risk, Abdali daringly plunged into the river. After crossing the river successfully at Bagpat (a town between Delhi and Panipat) his entire Durrani forces crossed the river by 25th October. Now Abdali was now behind the Marathas and had cut off from their route back to Delhi and the Deccan.?At that time?The Marathas moved further from Kunjpura to Kurukshetra for Pilgrimage but Abdali crossing the flooded Yamuna river surprised them.

After the Marathas failing to prevent Afghan forces from crossing the river, the Marathas camped in Panipat and set up defensive works in the ground thereby blocking Abdali's access back to Afghanistan. Because Sadashiv Rao did not have any allies his ration supplies got diminished. He didn't received any supply from Punjab as it was acquired by the Afghans earlier. Marathas supply & escape routes were completely blocked, forcing them to remained besieged within their camp. Afghan forces reached?Samalkha, a place about halfway between?Sonipat?and Panipat, where they encountered the vanguard of the Marathas. A chain of fierce skirmish ensued, in which the Afghans lost thousands of men and many wounded but drove the Marathas back to their main body, which kept retreating slowly for several days. This led to the partial encirclement of the Maratha army. But Afghan failed to penetrate Maratha camp due to their strong ground defense tactic as well as their expertise in Guerrilla warfare tactics . In one skirmishes that followed,?Govind Pant Bundele and his light cavalry who weren't formally trained soldiers, got killed in action when they were supplying ration to the Maratha camp. In another skirmish, Sarder Balwant Rao Mehendale, brother of Sadashiv's 1st wife Umabai and the one who lead the Huzurat forces, got killed. For three months, skirmishes took place almost on a daily basis causing heavy casualties on both sides. Disease and starvation was rampant as Marathas were cut off from their supplies. In Afghan camp, Abdali received daily supplies from Suja-ud-Daulah which helped them to survive longer.

Worse happened when winter was setting in and the Marathas were ill-equipped and unprepared for the North Indian winters. In January 1761, Marathas faced?famine.?With no supplies remaining and the Maratha chiefs continuous insisting to their Commander to fight & die in battlefield rather than starve to death, Sadashiv was forced to declare war.

On 13th January, 1761, Bhau called for a meeting of his Chiefs?to make war strategy. Sadashivrao Bhau along with Ibrahim Khan Gardi had planned that the Marathas will

• defend their position and repel Afghan attack
• demolish the he enemy formations with cannon fire
• fight the enemy to break Afghan defenses and force them to retreat but not to send their troops to the enemy positions until the Afghan were thoroughly softened
• make way in a defensive formation towards Delhi after Afghan defenses are broken were they expect to get supplies.

On 14th January, 1761, the Makar Sankranti Day, the Maratha army moved out of its camp and came face to face with the Afghan in the battlefield of Panipat. The Afghan army consist of 55000-60000 Durrani forces with heavy cavalry and camel-mounted artillery (zamburak cannon?and?jezail guns), 45000 of Rohilla forces, 10000 forces of Suja-ud-Daulah and few thousand solders of their alliances rulers. At 8 am, the Marathas started the attack with cannon fire led by Ibrahim Khan Gardi from the left flank. Ibrahim Khan's French designed cannons and his Gardi troops who were trained in French technique destroyed the Afghan right flank killing 12,000 soldiers and forcing them to fled from the battlefield. ?All of the Afghan attacks failed to dislodge Ibrahim Khan battalion from its defensive positions. It was Khan whose accurate aim through artilleries and warfare tactics gave heavy losses to the Afghan army. Simultaneously, Bhau launched the main attack with 50,000 soldiers along with Huzurat forces from the centre. Bhau himself led the attack and succeeded in breaking forces of Shah Wali, wazir of Abdali, who was leading afghan forces at the centre. Overall, around 45,000 men from?Abdali's forces and Najib Khan's forces?lost their lives in the initial stage of battle. The Marathas were winning.

In the mid-day, when the Marathas were tired, Abdali send his reserve forces and Nasakchi forces to attack. He ordered Najib, who was leading the left wing of Afghan forces, to create more tension on Holkar and Scindia forces who were at the right wing of Maratha army. Bhau didn't kept any fresh forces except troops of Vitthal Vinchurkar Shivdev (with 1500 cavalry) and Damaji Gaikwad (with 2500 cavalry) to protect Gardis and deploy them to help the fighting soldier when required. However, after seeing the fight and Marathas in the verge to win, they lost their patience, became overenthusiastic and decided to fight the Rohillas at the right flank themselves. Thus they broke the round.?The Rohilla riflemen started accurately firing at the Maratha cavalry, which was equipped only with swords. Thus the Gardis were left defenceless. This gave Afghans to encircle the central position of Marathas. At the same time, some Maratha Chieftains didn't stick to the plan and attacked in the front to the enemy position. Vishwasrao was shot dead which had a devastating effect on the morale of Maratha troops. Seeing this Bhau himself dismounted from his elephant to come to see Vishwas and without his rallying presence on the elephant, the Marathas troops panicked. Afghan troops recognised Bhau and stormed at him. Bhau got killed in action. Getting the news of Bhau's death many Maratha soldiers fled from the battlefield. Shamsher Bahadur defended his position but was severely wounded and died. Seeing the Marathas loosing the battle, Malhar Rao, retreated from the battlefield to the protect women and childern of Maratha chiefteins and other pilgrims as instructed by Sadashiv before the battle. At the right flank of Maratha army, Jankoji Scindia and his forces were defenceless and they didn't received help from Holker. He was outnumbered by Najib's Rohilla forces and was finally captured by some Afghan men. Mahadji Scindia repelled the enemy forces but was severely wounded. Other Maratha chieftains fall one by one. At the end, the Afghan army strike on the 10,000 Gardi troops. Ibrahim Khan and his battalion kept on defending its position against a numerically stronger Afghan army. The Gardis fall one by one and Ibrahim khan was captured. He was brought before Ahmed Shah Abdali?under severely injured condition. He was brutually tortured before his death for serving the Marathas.

?The forces led by Ahmad Shah Durrani came out victorious after destroying several Maratha flanks. He incurred heavy losses through this battle. On the other hand, not less than 1,00,000 Marathas were killed in the battle. Another 40,000 Marathas (both soldiers and common people) were executed the next day. 10,000 were reported missing. Another 10,000 soldiers among those who fled during the battle were chased found and killed. Jankoji Scindia who was captured was later killed. As per Bala Janardhan, the survivor of the battle, told that other than Sadashiv Rao Bhau and Vishwasrao, Shamsher Bahadur, Ibrahim Khan Gardi, Damaji Gaikwad, Vitthal Shivdev, Antaji Mankeshwar, Yashwant Rao Pawar, Jankoji Scindia, his uncle Jyotiba Rao Scindia, Tukoji Rao Scindia, along with 27 Maratha Chieftains died in the battle or were captured killed. According to the historians, there wasn't any house in Maharashtra in which members lost someone in that battle. Malhar Rao successfully bought the women of Maratha Chieftains to the areas of Rajput and Jats form where they were safely send to Maharashtra. Mahadji Scindia was the only Maratha chief who survived but wounded severely. The death of Bhau and Vishwasrao shocked Peshwas Nanasaheb and later died. The Marathas never recovered from the blow of Panipat. The Marathas' expansion was halted due to the battle, and the damage done to the their morale from the defeat caused infighting to break out within the empire. In 1771, The Marathas again regain their power under Peshwa Madhav Rao I and Mahadji Scindia.