Panipat

History

According to the legend, Panipat was one of the five cities (prasthas) founded by the Pandava brothers during the times of the Mahabharata; its historic name being Panduprastha. Panipat was the scene of three pivotal battles in the Indian history. Panipat is first recorded in the Mahabharata as one of the 5 villages that the Pandavas demanded from Duryodhana. The five villages are the "panch pat"

The First Battle of Panipat was fought on 21 April 1526 between Ibrahim Lodhi, the Afghan Sultan of Delhi, and the Turco-Mongol warlord Babur, who later established Mughal rule in Northern Indian subcontinent. Baburs force defeated Ibrahims much larger force of over one lakh (one hundred thousand) soldiers. This First battle of Panipat thus ended the Lodi Rule established by Bahlul Lodhi in Delhi.

The Second Battle of Panipat was fought on 5 November 1556 between the forces of Akbar and Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya, also known as Hemu, a King of North India, who belonged to Rewari in Haryana and had captured the large states of Agra and Delhi defeating Akbars forces. This king, also known as Vikramaditya had won 22 battles against the Afghan rebels from 1553–1556 from Punjab to Bengal, and had his coronation at Purana Quila in Delhi on 7 October 1556 and had established Hindu Raj in North India, before the 2nd battle of Panipat.Hem Chandra had a large army, and initially his forces were winning, but suddenly Hemu was struck by an arrow in the eye and he lost his senses. On not seeing him in his howdah on the back of an elephant, his army fled. He was later captured and beheaded by the Mughals. His head was sent to Kabul to be hanged outside Delhi Darwaza and torso was hanged outside Purana Quila in Delhi. This Second battle of Panipat thus ended the Hindu Raj established by Hemu in north India, albeit for a short period.

The Third Battle of Panipat was fought in 1761 between the Maratha Empire and the Afghan and Baloch invaders.