01The road to Delhi
Every army from the north-west came down the same strip of land between the Yamuna and the dry country, through Kurukshetra and Karnal, to Panipat and then Delhi, ninety kilometres on. Local tradition counts Panipat, as Panprastha, among the villages Yudhishthira asked of Duryodhana in place of a kingdom. On 21 April 1526 Babur’s guns and cavalry beat Ibrahim Lodi here. On 5 November 1556 Hemu, newly crowned in Delhi, was winning against Akbar’s army under Bairam Khan when an arrow struck his eye; he was carried to Bairam Khan and beheaded. A memorial at Sodhapur marks the place.
02Makar Sankranti, 1761
The third battle was the largest. Sadashivrao Bhau led the Maratha army north to hold Delhi against Ahmad Shah Abdali and his Rohilla and Awadh allies. For two months the Marathas were boxed in at Panipat, cut off from food, while Abdali held the road behind them. On 14 January 1761, Makar Sankranti, they came out and attacked. By afternoon the Peshwa’s son Vishwasrao was dead, Bhau had vanished into the fighting, and the army broke. Tens of thousands of soldiers and camp followers were killed in the battle and the pursuit. The Kala Amb memorial stands where the fiercest fighting is said to have been.
The life of this place
- 21 April 1526First battle of Panipat: Babur defeats Ibrahim Lodi.
- 5 November 1556Second battle: Hemu is wounded, captured and killed; the Mughals regain Delhi.
- 14 January 1761Third battle: Ahmad Shah Abdali defeats the Maratha army under Sadashivrao Bhau.
The Panipat Museum explains all three battles. Kala Amb is 8 km north of the town, and Hemu’s memorial is at Sodhapur on the Jind road.
