| Raid of Panipat | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Mughal-Sikh Wars | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Dal Khalsa |  Kingdom of Rohilkhand  Mughal Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Jassa Singh Ahluwalia Baghel Singh |  Najib ad-Dawlah Zabita Khan | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 20,000+ [2] [3] | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
The Raid of Panipat (1770) was a raid on 4 January 1770 by the Sikh forces led by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia against the Mughal forces led by Zabita Khan.
During the winter of 1767 after Diwali, the Sikhs moved near the territory of Panipat. Najib ad-Dawlah came with his army to fight against them. However, he realized that he couldn't fight the Khalsa and saw their control over places like Sirhind and Lahore. The Mughals were scared of the Sikhs attacking Delhi since they would most likely lose their capital. Therefore, Najib wrote a letter to the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II to resign his task of Delhi. [4]
In March 1768, Najib finally resigned. His son Zabita Khan was appointed the task to defend Delhi. He was told by his father to settle matters with the Sikhs either through a battle or by reaching a compromise. [4] [5] [6]
In January 1770, the Sikhs entered the estates of Najib. [7] [8] The Sikhs raided and plundered Panipat on January 4. [9] [8] Zabita Khan came to oppose them. The Sikhs demanded a large sum as the price of their friendship. Zabita declined to even entertain such proposals. [10] The Sikhs advanced from Panipat plundering villages around Panipat, Sonepat and Karnal area. [2] [11] [12]
The Sikhs reached Delhi on 10 January. No action was fought due to the wait of reinforcements. [10] When they arrived, Zabita Khan put up strong resistance and the Sikhs offered Khan one lakh rupees to withdraw from the countryside around Delhi. Negotiations failed and the Sikhs were forced to retreat. [7] [13] Najib ad-Dawlah died on 31 October 1770 which made Zabita Khan the second richest person in northern India. [5] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]
The Third Battle of Panipat took place on 14 January 1761 between the Maratha Confederacy and the invading army of the Durrani Empire. The battle took place in and around the city of Panipat, approximately 97 kilometres (60 mi) north of Delhi. The Afghans were supported by three key allies in India: Najib ad-Dawlah who persuaded the support of the Rohilla chiefs, elements of the declining Mughal Empire, and most prized the Oudh State under Shuja-ud-Daula. The Maratha army was led by Sadashivrao Bhau, who was third-highest authority of the Maratha Confederacy after the Chhatrapati and the Peshwa. The bulk of the Maratha army was stationed in the Deccan Plateau with the Peshwa.
The Battle of Panipat may refer to the three important battles fought at Panipat, India:
Shah Alam II, also known by his birth name Ali Gohar, or Ali Gauhar, was the seventeenth Mughal emperor and the son of Alamgir II. Shah Alam II became the emperor of a crumbling Mughal Empire. His power was so depleted during his reign that it led to a saying in the Persian language, Sultanat-e-Shah Alam, Az Dilli ta Palam, meaning, 'The empire of Shah Alam is from Delhi to Palam', Palam being a suburb of Delhi.
Mahadaji Shinde, later known as Mahadji Scindia or Madhava Rao Scindia, was a Maratha statesman and general who served as the Raja of Gwalior from 1768 to 1794. He was the fifth and the youngest son of Ranoji Rao Scindia, the founder of the Scindia dynasty. He is reputed for having restored the Maratha rule over North India and for modernizing his army.
Guru Nanak founded the Sikh religion in the Punjab region of the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in the 15th century and opposed many traditional practices like fasting, janeu, idolatry, caste system, ascetism, azan, economic materialism, and gender discrimination.
Najib ad-Dawlah, also known as Najib Khan Yousafzai, was a Rohilla Yousafzai Afghan who earlier served as a Mughal serviceman but later deserted the cause of the Mughals and joined Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1757 in his attack on Delhi. He was also a House chief of Rohilkhand, and in the 1740s founded the city of Najibabad in Bijnor district, India. He was instrumental in winning the Third Battle of Panipat.
Jassa Singh Ramgarhia (1723–1803) was a prominent Sikh leader during the period of the Sikh Confederacy. He was the founder of the Ramgarhia Misl.
Sultan-ul-Qaum Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia was a Sikh leader during the period of the Sikh Confederacy, being the Supreme Leader of the Dal Khalsa. He was also Misldar of the Ahluwalia Misl. This period was an interlude, lasting roughly from the time of the death of Banda Bahadur in 1716 to the founding of the Sikh Empire in 1801. He founded the Kapurthala State in 1772.
Baghel Singh was a Military general in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. He rose to prominence in the area around Sutlej and Yamuna. Singh joined the Singh Krora Misl, one of the misls during Sikh Confederacy. In 1765, Singh became the leader of the misl.
Zabita Khan Rohilla was a Rohilla chieftain in the time of the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II.
The Afghan-Maratha War was fought between the Afghan Empire under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Maratha Empire and the Sikh Confederacy between 1758 and 1761. It took place in north-west India, primarily the region around Delhi and Punjab.
The Battle of Kup was fought on 5 February 1762, between the Afghan forces of Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Sikhs, under the command of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Charat Singh. Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Afghan forces reached Malerkotla, west of Sirhind. Different sources give various estimates on how many sikhs were present. According to Tom Landsford, nearly 30,000 Sikh men, women, children, and elderly laid encamped. According to Narendra Sinha, 40,000 Sikhs were present. According to Hari Ram Gupta, 50,000 Sikh soldiers laid encamped at Kup while 5,000 non combatants laid encamped at Pind Garma. Abdali's forces outnumbered the Sikhs in hand-to-hand combat and the Sikhs couldn't use their usual tactics of hit and run, but had to engage in battle while protecting the civilians at the same time. With surprise attack, the Sikhs threw a human ring around civilians as protection and fought the battle killing several thousand Afghans. Abdali was able to break the ring and carried out a full scale massacre of the Sikh civilians. Ahmad Shah's forces killed several thousand Sikhs, and the surviving Sikhs fled to Barnala. According to various different estimates, as many as 5,000 to 30,000 Sikh men, women, elderly and children were killed in what is known as the second Sikh genocide.
Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of the Durrani Empire, invaded Indian subcontinent for eight times between 1748 and 1767, following the collapse of Mughal Empire in the mid-18th century. His objectives were met through the raids and deepened the political crisis in India.
Ramgarhia Misl was a sovereign state (misl) in the Sikh Confederacy of Punjab region in present-day India and Pakistan. The misl's name is derived from Qila Ramgarh, a place located in Ramsar, near Amritsar, which was fortified and redesigned by Ramgarhia Misl chief Jassa Singh Ramgarhia. The Ramgarhia Misl was one of the twelve major Sikh misls, and held land near Amritsar.
The Capture of Delhi was a battle in 1771 when the forces of the Maratha Empire led by Mahadaji Shinde captured Delhi along with the Red Fort and gave Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II the throne back with a treaty. The Marathas captured Delhi from Najib Khan's son Zabita Khan who was put in charge by the Afghans. With this capture, the Marathas regained their lost supremacy in North India after the Third Battle of Panipat and conquered much of the lost territories which they lost after that battle.
Sikh attacks on Delhi were common in the second half of the 18th century. The Sikhs attacked Delhi 19 times between 1766 and 1788.
The siege of Kunjpura was a 14-day siege in April to May 1772 by Sikh forces led by Sahib Singh against the Mughal coalition forces led by Mughal Ali Khan.
The siege of Patiala was a 7-day siege fought between the Sikh forces led by Raja Amar Singh and Mughal forces led by Abdul Ahad Khan.
The Sikh Invasion of Ganga-Yamuna was the first Sikh Incursion in the neighbouring Doab. It took place right after the Sikh Conquest of Sirhind 1764, where the Durrani Governor Zain Khan Sirhindi was killed. Driven by this victory, Sikhs under the leadership of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia invaded the Upper Doab.
The Second Sikh Invasion of Rohilkhand took place in late 1764 while Najib ad-Dawlah was being besieged in Delhi by Jawahar Singh of Bharatpur, offering Sikhs to invade the unprotected Rohilla estates led by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia.
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