Whenever they charged the enemy in front, the chief of the staff and Najib were directed to fall upon either flank. The Marathas never fully recovered from the loss at Panipat, but they met the predominant military power in India and managed to retake Delhi 10 years later. They had also made large territorial and monetary claims upon Awadh. Bhau escaped, to die sometime later, but the Maratha army had been destroyed and the unity of the empire was broken. Detail panipat 1761 new rory Sadashiv Rao, Elements Library, Johnson Album 66,3 The rapid style of execution in ink, with compressed figures drawn in rows and few touches of colour, aids the viewer through the frenzied battle scene. Further information: The Third Battle of Panipat saw an enormous number of deaths and injuries in a sin day of battle. Meanwhile the Sikhs—whose rebellion was the original reason Ahmad invaded—were left largely untouched by the battle. In this order the army of Ahmed Shah moved forward, leaving him at his preferred post in the centre, which was now in the rear of the sin, from where he could watch and direct the battle.
The Third Battle of Panipat took place on 14 January 1761 at , about 60 miles 97 km north of , between a northern expeditionary force of the and invading forces of the , , supported by two Indian allies—the Najib-ud-daulah Afghans of the , and , the Nawab of. Militarily, the battle pitted the artillery and cavalry of the against the heavy cavalry and mounted artillery and of the Afghans and Rohillas led by Abdali and , both ethnic. Third Battle of Panipat The Third Battle of Panipat, 14 January 1761, Hafiz Rahmat Khan, standing right of , who is shown sitting on a brown horse. Date 14 January 1761 Location in present-day , India Result Afghan victory Territorial changes Marathas lost suzerainty over Punjab till north of Sutlej river to the Afghans. Ahmad Shah Durrani vacates Delhi soon after the battle. Maratha expansion checked for the time being. The force was accompanied by 200,000 pilgrims and camp-followers totally an army of 50,000 and 200,000 non combatants. Casualties and losses Approximately 45,000-50,000 combatants killed. Estimates around 30,000-40,000 combatants killed in the battle. Another 40,000—70,000 non-combatants massacred following the battle. The specific site of the battle itself is disputed by historians, but most consider it to have occurred somewhere near modern-day Kaalaa Aamb and Sanauli Road. The battle lasted for several days and involved over 125,000 troops. Protracted skirmishes occurred, with losses and gains on both sides. The forces led by came out victorious after destroying several Maratha flanks. The extent of the losses on both sides is heavily disputed by historians, but it is believed that between 60,000—70,000 were killed in fighting, while the numbers of injured and prisoners taken vary considerably. According to the single best eyewitness chronicle—the bakhar by Shuja-ud-Daulah's Diwan Kashi Raj—about 40,000 Maratha prisoners were slaughtered in cold blood the day after the battle. Grant Duff includes an interview of a survivor of these massacres in his History of the Marathas and generally corroborates this number. This period is marked by the rule of , who is credited with the revival of Maratha domination following the defeat at Panipat. In 1771,ten years after Panipat, he sent a large Maratha army into northern India in an expedition that was meant to re-establish Maratha domination in that area and defeat refractory powers that had either sided with the Afghans, such as the Rohillas, or had shaken off Maratha domination after Panipat. Extent of the , 1795 The decline of the following the 1680—1707 led to rapid territorial gains for the. Under Peshwa Baji Rao, Gujarat, Malwa and Rajputana came under Maratha control. Finally, in 1737, Baji Rao defeated the Mughals on the outskirts of Delhi and brought much of the former Mughal territories south of Delhi under Maratha control. Baji Rao's son further increased the territory under Maratha control by invading Punjab in 1758. Ahmad Shah Durrani's son Timur Shah Durrani and Jahan Khan have been pursued by our troops, and their troops completely looted. Both of them have now reached Peshawar with a few broken troops... So Ahmad Shah Durrani has returned to Kandahar with some 12-14 thousand broken troops.. Thus all have risen against Ahmad who has lost control over the region. We have decided to extend our rule up to Kandahar. In 1759 he raised an army from the and tribes and made several gains against the smaller Maratha garrisons in Punjab. He then joined with his Indian allies—the Rohilla Afghans of the Gangetic Doab—forming a broad coalition against the Marathas. The Marathas, under the command of , responded by gathering an army of between 45,000—60,000, which was accompanied by roughly 200,000 non-combatants, a number of whom were pilgrims
