Panipat, Third Battle of

The Third Battle of Panipat takes place on January 14, 1761 at Panipat, about sixty miles (ninety-seven kilometers) north of Delhi, between a northern expeditionary force of the Maratha Empire and invading forces of the King of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Abdali, supported by two Indian allies—the Rohilla Afghans of the Doab, and Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh.

Militarily, the battle pits the artillery and cavalry of the Marathas against the heavy cavalry and mounts artillery (zamburak and jizail) of the Afghans and Rohillas led by Ahmad Shah Abdali and Najib-ud-Daulah, both ethnic Afghans (the former is also known as Ahmad Shah Durrani).

The battle is considered one of the largest and most eventful fought in the eighteenth century, and has perhaps the largest number of fatalities in a single day reported in a classic formation battle between two armies.

The specific site of the battle itself is disputed by historians, but most consider it to have occurred somewhere near modern-day Kaalaa Aamb and Sanauli Road.

The battle lasts for several days and involves over one hundred and twenty-five thousand troops.

Protracted skirmishes occur, with losses and gains on both sides.

The forces led by Ahmad Shah Durrani come out victorious after destroying several Maratha flanks.

The extent of the losses on both sides is heavily disputed by historians, but it is believed that between sixty thousand to seventy thousand were killed in fighting, while the numbers of injured and prisoners taken vary considerably.

According to the single best eyewitness chronicle--the bakhar by Shuja-ud-Daulah's Diwan Kashi Raj--about forty thousand Maratha prisoners were slaughtered in cold blood the day after the battle.

Grant Duff includes an interview of a survivor of these massacres in his History of the Marathas and generally corroborates this number.

Shejwalkar, whose monograph Panipat 1761 is often regarded as the single best secondary source on the battle, says that "not less than 100,000 Marathas (soldiers and non-combatants) perished during and after the battle."

The result of the battle is the halting of further Maratha advances in the north, and a destabilization of their territories, for roughly ten years.

This period is marked by the rule of Peshwa Madhavrao, who is credited with the revival of Maratha domination following the defeat at Panipat

In 1771, ten years after Panipat, he sends a large Maratha army into northern India in an expedition that is meant to re-establish Maratha domination in that area and punish refractory powers that had either sided with the Afghans, such as the Rohillas, or had shaken off Maratha domination after Panipat.

The success of this campaign can be seen as the last saga of the long story of Panipat.

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