FIRST BATTLE OF
PANIPAT
Battle of Panipat has fought between
Mongol prince Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad BABUR and the Afghan Sultan of Delhi
Ibrahim Lodi. on 21 April 1526. At the time Babur was ruling in central Asia.
After losing Samarkand for the second time, Babur gave attention to conquering
India as he reached the banks of the Chenab in 1519. Until 1524, he aimed to
only expand his rule to Punjab. But At
that time, parts of north India were under the rule of Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi
dynasty, but the empire was crumbling and there were many defectors. Thus to
take revenge on their insults Daulat Khan Lodi governor of Lahore and Alam Khan
an uncle of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi invited Babur the ruler of Kabul to invade
India.
Babur started for Lahore,
Punjab, in 1524 but found that Daulat Khan Lodi had been driven out by forces
sent by Ibrahim Lodi. When Babur arrived at Lahore, the Lodi army marched
out and was routed. In response, Babur burned and punished the people of
Lahore for two days, then marched to Dipalpur, placing Alam Khan, another rebel
uncle of Lodi's, as governor. Alam Khan was quickly overthrown and fled to
Kabul. In response, Babur supplied Alam Khan with troops who later joined up
with Daulat Khan Lodi and together with about 30,000 troops, they besieged
Ibrahim Lodi at Delhi. He defeated them and drove Alam's army off, and
Babur realised Lodi would not allow him to occupy the Punjab. Hearing of the size of Ibrahim's army, Babur secured his
right flank against the city of Panipat.
Prudently Babur took up a defensive
position. He based his right flank upon city walls a ditch protected his left
flank and front lay behind a line of 700 carts tied together with rawhide ropes
to break cavalry charges. Every 100 yards passages were provided for his
horsemen to ride through for attack. Those passages were heavily defended by
his archers and matchlock men.
For 8 days he waited for Sultans attack.
Ibrahim marched slowly and without plans, his officers had never seen such
defenses before. Mongols have created a fort in the middle of a plain his spy's
informed him. Babur sent out his horsemen to raid the Sultans army on 9th
April. After a light engagement Mongol broke and ran back it was a feint and it
worked. Ibrahim was elated at the ease with which his troops had repulsed best
horsemen Babur had sent. Overconfident and full of high hope he decided to
attack. The next morning Sultan Ibrahim Lodi advanced rapidly.
At about 400 yards Babur's Cannons
opened fire noise and smoke terrified Afghans and the attack lost momentum.
Seizing the movement Babur sent out his flanking columns to envelop the Sultans
army. Here Afghans met the first time the real weapon of Mongols Turko-Mongol
Bow. Its superiority as an instrument of war lay in the fact that it was the
arm of the nobles of the finest warriors. Bow in the hand of a Turko-Mongol
would shoot three times as rapidly as musket and could kill at 200 yards.
Attacked from 3 sides Afghans jammed into each other. Elephants hearing noise
of cannon at close range ran wildly out of control.
Ibrahim Lodi and about 6000 of his troops were
involved in actual fighting. Most of his army stretching behind up to a mile
never saw action. Battle ended in about 3 hours with the death of Ibrahim Lodi
who was at the forefront. And in the place where fighting had been the fiercest
dead amid the heap of Mongols slain of his sword lay the vain but courageous
Sultan Ibrahim his head was cut off and taken to Babur wrote a Mongol
historian. When Afghans fled they left 20000 dead and wounded. Thus came the
final collapse of Delhi Sultanate and paved the establishment of new Turkish
rule in India.
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