Second Battle of Panipat

Second Battle of Panipat
The defeat of Hemu, a c. 1590s painting by Kankar of the Second Battle of Panipat taken from the Akbarnama.
Date November 5, 1556 Location Panipat (in present-day Haryana, India) 29°23′N 76°58′E / 29.39°N 76.97°E / 29.39; 76.97 Result Decisive victory of the Mughal Empire
Belligerents
Mughal Empire	Hemu
Commanders and leaders
Bairam Khan Ali Quli Khan Shaibani Sikandar Khan Uzbak Abdulla Khan Uzbak Husain Quli Beg Shah Quli Mahram	Hemu † Ramya Shadi Khan Kakkar †
Strength
10,000 cavalry	30,000 cavalry 500 war elephants

The Second Battle of Panipat was fought on November 5, 1556, between the forces of Hemu, the Hindu general and Chief Minister of Adil Shah Suri, and the army of the Mughal emperor, Akbar. Hemu had conquered Delhi a month earlier by defeating the Mughals led by Tardi Beg Khan at the Battle of Delhi and proclaimed himself Raja Vikramaditya. Akbar and his guardian, Bairam Khan, had immediately marched to Delhi to reclaim the city. The two armies clashed at Panipat not far from the site of the First Battle of Panipat of 1526.

Although Hemu had lost his artillery to the Mughals before the battle, his forces held the numerical superiority. However, Hemu was wounded by a chance arrow in the middle of the battle and fell unconscious. Seeing their leader going down, his army panicked and dispersed. Hemu was captured and subsequently beheaded. The battle ended in a decisive victory for Akbar.

Humayun, the successor of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, had lost his inheritance when he was chased out of India by Sher Shah Suri who established the Sur Empire in 1540. Delhi and Agra fell into Sher Shah's hands, but he died soon after in 1545 at Kalinjar. He was succeeded by his younger son, Islam Shah Suri, who was a capable ruler. However, upon his death in 1553, the Sur Empire was caught up in a succession battle and was plagued by rebellion and the secession of provinces. Humayun made use of this discord to recapture what was lost and on 23 July 1555, the Mughals defeated Sikandar Shah Suri and finally regained control over Delhi and Agra.

Islam Shah's rightful successor, his 12-year-old son, Firoz Khan, had been murdered by his maternal uncle who had taken the throne as Adil Shah Suri. The new ruler was however, more interested in the pursuit of pleasure than in the affairs of his state. Those were largely left to Hemu, a Hindu from Rewari, who had risen from humble circumstances to become both Adil Shah's Chief Minister as well as the general of the Suri army. He was in Bengal when Humayun died on 26 January 1556. The Mughal emperor's death provided an ideal opportunity to defeat the Mughals and reclaim lost territory.

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