Re: The worst day…
Many thanks to all for your continued support.
We are almost at the end of our journey into this section of History and I intend to reward those that have followed me from the first post with something worth it at the end.
Now the two armies of the Durrani and Maratha empires came to clash on Panipat in 1761. The day was a hot one and it began early with the Maratha troops who had eaten the last of thier supplies and who now marched out of thier siege lines towards the Afghan positions in the distance. At the first light of dawn almost the entire fighting force of the Maratha army set off towards Panipat leaving thier Women and camp followers with a small guard of soldiers loyal to the Holkar Chief of Indore. Led by Sadashivrao Bhao they had a simple objective they would march to the point now known as Kala Amb (black Mango tree) and draw thier battle formations in a thin double section line stretching across the plain of Panipat. They intended to concetrate their Artillery lines in front of thier army to bombard the Afghan army, placing thier infantry behind the guns and thier cavalry behind the infantry and to the flanks.
The early advance of the Marathas was soon detected by the Afghan scouts and so Abdali who’s red tent was in the area of the modern Sanuli road summoned his army to rally in front of his tent and position thier cannon in the front. Unlike the Maratha army though who had 200 guns lined almost wheel to wheel the Afghan guns were spread in clusters across the 12 mile front with entire regiments of cavalry between each gun battery. Unlike the Marathas Abdali had much more strategic plans and cunningly ordered his weaker troops to the front and his best men were saved as a reserve.
At about 9:00am the Marathas were in position having dragged thier guns into place since dawn, the armies streched across the plain for many miles and the gap between the two lines was separated by two miles… both sides had a view of each other that was at first very clear but as the guns opened fire the view was lost to smoke. The Marathas kept up a steady bombardment but after the first few salvoes they lost complete sight of the enemy due to the heavy smoke of thier elavated heavy guns. In that time Abdali cleverly crept his whole army which was gifted with more manouverablity ever closer to the Maratha lines. One must feel very sorry for the front rank of Afghans who must have been goaded into the fight by the pressure of the troops behind them… But Abdali was making clever use of his army by taking them closer to the guns they were avoiding the heavy bombardment which was being aimed at the ground behind them. The Afghans were simply creeping under the range of the bombardment and letting the Maratha shots go wasted over thier advancing heads!
A relief showing the Afghan forces advancing on the Maratha postions. The figure on the brown horse in the top right of this relief is supposed to represent Hafiz Rehmat khan one of Abdali’s cavalry commanders note the Afghan superiority in cavalry and how the more numerous Marathas are represeted in more neat close formation.
Abdali’s troops were not really noticed much through the smoke cloud and since there was an unerving silence from the Afghan ranks the Maratha commanders must have thought they were beating the the enemy back with thier superior fire power. Thus it came as a shock to them when out of the gunsmoke Abdali who had closed the range so that the larger Maratha cannon were firing to far behind and the smaller were not powerfull enough to hit his troops. After advancing his whole force half a mile Abdali ordered his silent army to open fire with every gun available. At this closer range they could hardly miss and the Maratha army must have been shocked by the terrible bombardment that Addali’s less numerous cannon were now making at closer range. If that was a terrible shock what happened next must have been equally as shocking to the Maratha soldiers, for hardly had Abdali’s army fired three salvoes when his entire flanking light cavalry squadrons backed by some light infantry units roared into a frontal attack on the Maratha lines.
To the Marathas it must have been a scary sight seeing the best part of 10,000 thundering Afghans, Persians and Turkic mercenaries storm towards them without any sign of fear and full of confidence. The Marathas however composed themselves and re-aligned thier guns to fire almost point blank at Abdali’s leading troops. This is the point where after making a mile and a half journey the Afghans were almost obliterated within the shadow of the Maratha gun line. Few of the Afghans escaped such brutal close range gun fire without being injured and the attack faltered and retreated causing chaos in the Afghan army.
The Marathas were using a clever ploy of routinely switching thier armies forward and reverse troops back and forth. Resting the tired forward soldiers and replacing them with fresh men when possible in the lulls between the fighting. By Midday neither side had a clear edge and now that the Maratha army knew the position of Abdali’s army better they bega to concentrate thier firepower at his flanks. The resulting ferocity of the bombardment led to many Afghan soldiers running away and struggling to escape the Maratha gunfire, so heavy was the bombardment that officers were forced to draw swords on thier own running soldiers.
Seeing the enemy run the less cautious Maratha generals such as Vitor Shidev and Damajee Gaikwad led thier cavalry out to charge the disordered Afghan forces. Many of the Maratha reserves also joined the glory hunting horsemen and charged forward to join the fight. It looked as if the Marathas had won the day and the Afghans were in dire situation as almost thier entre left right flank was on the run or had been destroyed, the left flank fared little better. The vengefull Maratha cavalry and reserves hammered into the centre of the Afghan lines and it was here that a terrible fight ensued as the Afghans opened fire at point blank range and then closed for the hand to hand struggle. Abdali in the midst of his own bodyguards was forced to fight and even made a moving speech to his fleeing soldiers to stand and fight for the love of Islam and it’s Prophet and declared that any fleeing soldier would be put to the sword. Somehow Abdali’s reserve and better quality armoured guards not only drove back the Maratha attack they also managed to round up thier own men and force them back into the fight.
http://www.panipatcity.net/sites/default/files/images/Battel%20of%20Panipat%203rd.jpg
Image of the intense fighting between the two armies cavalry forces, note the crushed infantry in the ground.
By now it was late afternoon and Adbali gambled everything in a last ditch cavalry charge of armoured horsemen some 15,000 of his personal guard and most fearsome fighters led a general attack on the Maratha centre aimed at the positions of Vishwas Rao the son of the Peshwa and Maratha Prince. By now the exhausted Maratha fron line had no reserves to reinforce them and thier moral collapsed after thier leader was shot by a roving Afghan sniper. The Predicament was only made worse when the Bhao who tried to rescue the Peshwa’s son was himself felled by an Afghan sharp shooter. With two senoir commanders dead the Maratha army broke and fled, but the more manouverable Afghan army cut down almost every single man present in the Maratha army.
http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/hindu_history/panipat.jpg
The last charge of the Afghan heavy cavalry that turned the tide of battle.
The only consolation for the Marathas was that thier camp was spared becuase Holkar the Rajah of Indore led his soldiers to guard the Women and marched them through the lines of Najib Khan. Najib had sworn to protect the honour of Holkar and the Marathas and thus the women were spared the worst of the after battle horrors.
Exactly how many soldiers were lost is strongly debated to this day but few of the 200,000 strong Maratha army ever reached thier homeland. Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao was so overcome by this defeat it led to his untimely demis within a year of the disaster that happened at Panipat. As Kipling would later write in his poem “with Scindia to Delhi” The Marathas had marched an empire to Panipat and lost it there. Afghan casualties vary from as few as 5,000 to as many as 30,000 but it’s clear that they had achieved a remarkable victory against all odds, having defeated a technically superior enemy army with much fewer casualties than would be otherwise expected.
However the Battle of Panipat would have far reaching consequences for all those involved becuase Abdali lost many of his best soldiers in the fight and was unable to stem the tides of revolts in his own country of Afghanistan. He left behind the Mughals as nominal rulers in Delhi and made the British and all other Indian powers accept his verdict in Delhi he then left India and would never be able to come beyond the Punjab as the Sikhs were to become a thorn in his side in future years eventually taking Lahore from him.
The Marathas would never again be as powerfull as they had been up till Panipat and sadly not half a century later they would fall to the British again when thier army would be outmanouvered at another river and this time the British would turn a Maratha army at Assaye in 1803. Slowly but surely the Maratha empire breathed it’s last at Painpat for the mortal wound that still hurts South Indians and has become part of folklore in that region to this day makes Panipat a name to be uttered when a bad tiding is hear.
Had the Martathas won then maybe today India would stretch from Afghanistan to the Assam hills for never would the British have beaten the Marathas in thier full strength. Likewise it is hard to imagine a more complete victory for the Afghans but my Millitary tutors in Pakistan were not all correct when they made out this battle to be a great truimph of Islam. Becuase while millitarily it was atriumph and you cannot deny that, my heart and soul believe that had the two sides agreed to a peacefull solution as proposed by the two sides before the final battle commenced then the Subcontinent would perhaps never have fallen to the British and even today both sides would be living in more peacefull co-existance as they had been for centuries. Panipat marks the point in which the Subcontinent would truly be divided forever. I hope our modern leaders and those that come after them will learn to appreciate that sometimes dialogoue is the better way to achive peace than to simply sabre rattle with Nuclear weapons. Not even the most Warlike warrior wants to fight and lose everything he has worked for in his life.
I want to thank with my heart all who have shared this journey of learning with me and you are all free to make comments and discuss the issues in the long and eventfull narrative I have told in this thread.
I would like to give special thanks to my friends on both sides of the Border. From my Millitary tutor Hamza Arsalan Khan of the Pakistan defence college. To Colonel Tariq my former commanding officer and constant inpiration on the way of the Warrior. To Duravat Singh of Jaipur who was my host in 2006 and who’s fine residence was my lodging for the best part of a week. I wish to extend my thanks to Proffesor Vankatesh and Professor Rajesh Govar who helped me compile many of the facts and sources from the Indian side of this conflict. I must also thank my friend on GupShup Rajind who was an inspiration in life and whom I have not seen on GS for many months I hope he is well and in the best of Health.
For anyone who wants to visit the sites mentioned in this narrative all sites are open to the publice except the Fort of Attock which to this day is out of bounds to all civiliians in Pakistan as it is an active army base.
For sources I will include a more thorough Bibliography in my next post.
I would also like to express my gratitude to Munir and Irfan Hassan who are my long time friends and who helped me in gettign hold of some of the most difficuilt permits I have ever applied for.
I will also in my next post include a treat for all those who have had the patience to follow me along this journey and yet again I thank you all for the support and encouragement you gave me in this venture.
Finally I must include a Historicall note and point out that there are many conflicting views on this subject, I have merely collated those that I think to be generally accepted facts and should anyone think that there is a fault in my version of events, that fault is entirely mine and I am to take full responsibilty. That said my writing is based on extensive research and much of it is considered to be the best on this subject that has ever been compiled on this subject. Gathering sources from an event that took place 250 years ago and sifting through the layers of bais and propaganda to find the truth is a very tiring and demading task for one of my level of intelligence which is average at the best of times. :silly:
Again I extend my thanks to eveyone who has taken part and I will hopefully continue to present many more such threads in the coming days.
