An arrow struck Hemu in the eye at the height of the battle; his army broke, and he was captured and beheaded.
01From Rewari to the throne
Hemu began as a trader of Rewari and rose to be chief minister and general of Adil Shah Sur. The Mughal chroniclers themselves count some twenty battles he won for the Afghans. After Humayun’s death he swept up from Bengal, beat the Mughal governor Tardi Beg at Tughlaqabad on 7 October 1556 and entered Delhi. There he was crowned and took the old title of Vikramaditya.
02The arrow
At Panipat Hemu’s elephants drove back both Mughal wings. Riding his elephant Hawai in the centre, he was hit in the eye by an arrow and sank down in the howdah. Seeing their leader fall, his men lost heart and scattered. The elephant was led into the Mughal lines. Abul Fazl and Badauni both record that Hemu was beheaded in the camp; they differ on whether the boy Akbar struck a blow. His head was sent to Kabul and his body hung at a gate of Delhi.
Panipat 1556 restored the Mughals and ended the last chance in that century of a Hindu-led power in Delhi.