Panipat

Panipat lies on the plain north of Delhi, where armies approaching the imperial capital have repeatedly met in battle. The town was a pargana under the Mughals, with a brick fort and an obligation to furnish troops. Its name is remembered above all for three great encounters that helped decide who would rule northern India.

In 1526 Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat, using field artillery against the sultan's larger army and laying the foundation of Mughal rule. Thirty years later Akbar's forces met Hemu, who had taken Agra and Delhi. Hemu's army initially had the advantage, but he was wounded and his troops fled, leaving the Mughals victorious. In 1761 Ahmad Shah Durrani's Afghan coalition defeated the Marathas under Sadashivrao Bhau in a third battle, a crushing setback to Maratha power in the north.