First Battle of Panipat

The First Battle of Panipat was fought on 21 April 1526 near the town of Panipat, in present-day Haryana, north of Delhi. Babur, a Timurid prince ruling from Kabul, defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi, sultan of Delhi, despite being heavily outnumbered. It was one of the first battles in the Indian subcontinent decided in part by gunpowder weapons, and it began the Mughal dynasty's rule in India.

In 1504 Babur seized the kingdom of his late uncle Ulugh Beg II, centred on Kabul and Ghazni in today's Afghanistan. Blocked to the north-west by the Uzbek leader Muhammad Shaybani, he looked instead to the south-east and the rich Punjab. By 1519 his raids had carried him as far as the Chenab River.

Most of northern India then belonged to the Delhi Sultanate, ruled since 1517 by the Lodi dynasty's Ibrahim Lodi. Ibrahim was at odds with members of his own family and with leading nobles. Daulat Khan Lodi, governor of Punjab, offered to change sides and support Babur. When Babur marched on Lahore in 1524, he found that Ibrahim's troops had already driven Daulat Khan out; Babur routed the Lodi force sent against him, took several towns in the Punjab, and handed Dipalpur to Alam Khan, a rebel uncle of the sultan, before going back to Kabul.

Late in 1525 Babur returned, crossing the Indus in December. Having made sure of the Punjab, he advanced towards Delhi, and at Panipat he found the sultan waiting with a far larger army.

Ibrahim's army is reported at 50,000 to 70,000 men, with about 1,000 war elephants but no firearms; one breakdown gives 30,000 infantry and 40,000 cavalry, half of the cavalry irregulars. Babur had around 12,000 men. Some of them carried matchlock muskets, his horsemen fought as mounted archers, and he brought between 15 and 20 cannon.

Babur chose a defensive position. He lashed together some 700 carts into a line, with shelters between every second pair from which his musketeers could fire, and left gaps wide enough for about 150 horsemen at a time to ride out and counter-attack. His right flank rested on the town of Panipat itself, and on the left he dug a ditch filled with branches to hinder cavalry.

When Ibrahim attacked, the narrow front prevented him from bringing his greater numbers to bear. Babur's guns and muskets held the sultan's centre in place while the mounted archers swept round its flanks and rear. The roar of the cannon terrified the elephants and added to the confusion. Ibrahim was killed along with an estimated 20,000 of his soldiers, and thousands more died in the retreat.

Panipat was a decisive military victory, but Babur's hold on his new lands was not yet secure. In 1527 he had to defeat Rana Sanga, ruler of Mewar, at Khanwa, and in 1529 an Afghan coalition in the east on the Ghaghra River. These victories laid the foundations of the Mughal Empire, which would last for more than three centuries. Two later battles were fought at the same place: the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556 and the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761.

Our 1500 map shows northern India under the Delhi Sultanate on the eve of the invasion, and the 1530 map shows the new Mughal state that replaced it.