Cite
MLA
“Siege of Kunjpura (1772).” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-kunjpura-1772/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Siege of Kunjpura (1772). Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-kunjpura-1772/
After a fortnight’s siege the Sikhs broke the defence; Mughal Ali Khan escaped to Delhi.
01Holding the road north
Kunjpura, near Karnal, was the stronghold of a family of Afghan nawabs who had sided with Abdali; the Marathas had stormed it once already in 1760. In the spring of 1772 the Delhi court sent Mughal Ali Khan north with troops lent by the Marathas and the Afghans to check the Sikh raids that now reached the outskirts of the capital. Daler Khan of Kunjpura joined him. Near the town the Sikh sardars under Baghel Singh and others attacked him.
02Fourteen days
After a day of heavy fighting in the open, Mughal Ali Khan and Daler Khan shut themselves into the fort and repaired its walls by night. The Sikhs closed round it. For thirteen days they kept up the attack, and on the fourteenth the defence gave way. Mughal Ali Khan slipped out and reached Delhi, and the Maratha commander there hurried north to Panipat and Karnal to face the Sikhs.
Kunjpura showed how far south the Sikh sardars could now reach; within a decade Baghel Singh would camp in Delhi itself.
