Third Battle of Panipat
| Third Battle of Panipat | |||||||||
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 The Third Battle of Panipat, 14 January 1761, Hafiz Rahmat Khan, standing right of Ahmad Shah Durrani, who is shown sitting on a brown horse. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Supported by:
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 Maratha Empire
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Ahmad Shah Durrani (Shah of Durrani Empire) Timur Shah DurraniWazir Wali KhanShah Pasand KhanJahan Khan Shuja-ud-Daula Najib-ud-DaulaHafiz Rahmat KhanDundi KhanBanghas Khan |
 Sadashivrao Bhau (commander-in-chief of Maratha Army) Vishwasrao Malharrao Holkar Mahadji Shinde Ibrahim Khan GardiJankoji ShindeBhivrao Panse BhoitePurandareVinchurkar (Infantry & Cavalry)Sidoji Gharge |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 42,000 cavalry 38,000 infantry 10,000 reserves 4,000 personal guards 5,000 Qizilbash 120–130 pieces of cannon large numbers of irregulars totally an army of 100,000. |
40,000 cavalry 15,000 infantry(divided to 9 battalyons of Gardi rifle infantry) 15,000 Pindaris 200 pieces of artillery. The force was accompanied by 300,000 non-combatants (pilgrims and camp-followers) totally an army of 70,000. |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Estimates between 20,000 and 40,000 combatants killed. | Estimates between 30,000 and 40,000 combatants killed in the battle. Another 40,000-70,000 non-combatants massacred following the battle. | ||||||||
The Third Battle of Panipat took place on 14 January 1761 at Panipat, about 60 miles (97 km) 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 pitted the French origin artillery and cavalry of the Marathas against the heavy cavalry and mounted 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 18th 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 lasted for several days and involved over 125,000 troops. Protracted skirmishes occurred, with losses and gains on both sides. The forces led by Ahmad Shah Durrani came 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 60,000–70,000 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 40,000 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."
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