The Bayana garrison was driven back into the fort and Babur’s advance guard was cut up, leaving his camp shaken before Khanwa.
01Sanga comes north
After Panipat in 1526 Babur held Delhi and Agra, but Rana Sanga of Mewar was the strongest king in north India, and the Afghan chiefs looked to him. Early in 1527 Sanga marched on Bayana, the old fort that guarded the road from Rajasthan to Agra, where Babur had placed Mahdi Khwaja. The garrison came out to meet the Rajputs and was beaten back inside the walls with loss. Babur sent troops forward towards Khanwa; an advance party under Abdul Aziz pushed ahead too far, was charged by Rajput horse and lost many men before help reached it.
02Fear in Babur’s camp
Babur’s memoir does not hide what followed. Men who came back from Bayana praised the courage of the Rajputs, and the camp lost heart; an astrologer added to the gloom with bad omens. Babur answered by giving up wine, breaking his gold and silver drinking vessels, and calling his officers to swear on the Quran to fight to the end. His proclamation of the coming battle as a holy war belongs to these same days. On 16 March 1527 the two armies met at Khanwa.
Bayana showed that Sanga could beat the new Mughal power in the field; Babur needed his guns and the defences of Khanwa to turn the war.