Panipat Book By Vishwas Patil Pdf Download
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This was the day where many great instances of individual bravery and heroism were witnessed. This was the day that quite possibly changed the course of Indian history. The British who had just won their first major victory in India at Plassey in 1757 got an opening.
Today, we solemnly commemorate the 250th anniversary of 3rd battle of Panipat. This is the time to remember the heroism; and also to learn from the mistakes. Today we remember Sadashivrao Bhau, Vishwasrao, Dattaji Shinde, Ibrahim Gardi and countless other brave soldiers who fell in that fateful battle, 250 years ago. All over Maharashtra and India, many functions have been organized to remember this day, including some at Panipat.
Vishwas Patil has written one of the most popular books about the Battle of Panipat. Originally written in Marathi nearly 20 years back, it has had many new editions/reprints and has been translated into other languages as well. Here is a nice indepth interview of Vishwas Patil (4 parts):
battle of panipat was the turning point of modern indian history , it resulted in the family politics in the maratha empire , the british took advantage of that and started to interfere with the pune court. the empire fell with in just 40 years. though its a disaster for our side but historians argue that its not a defeat as if it could be the country would have come under islamic invaders again which didnt happened. abdali suffered so much loss that he never tried to attack india again. we remember the great soldiers who were starving for days but still fought like a lion. In the words of a famous marathi poet ram ganesh gadkari
Then majorforces in the north India like Najib, nawab of ayodhya, jats, shinde, holkars were not in favour of peshwa to manage north India politics. they sensed that after the battle, vishwasrao under sadashivrao will capture delhi throne. So all these north indian forces directly or indirectly helped abdali to defeat peshwa and his future plans. British might have played some role behind the scene.
Bajirao the First was one of the very few undefeated generals in world history; his mastery over strategic mobility was a key to his success. However, Panipat generals had forgotten all about battle tactics.
I have been reading primary and secondary sources on this battle for some time now. The sequence of events that led to the defeat are very depressing. The army found itself in a siege, with its supply lines cut off, and with 3 times as many non-combatants as combatants (because the women had accompanied the men intending to do tirthayatra in kurukshetra). Food ran out about 3 weeks before the battle. Since the supply and communication lines were cut off by Abdali, there was no way of knowing whether or not the 50,000 strong reinforcement from Poona was near, or far. Finally, when starvation deaths were being reported daily, the army decided to fight and die rather than starve to death. A good part of the responsibility must be borne by Nana Saheb Peshwa, who delayed sending reinforcements for 6 weeks in order to celebrate his wedding in Paithan.
Strategically, the marathas should never have ventured so far north of their base in Delhi. They did so in order to fulfill the promises made to the womenfolk regarding pilgrimage to Kurukshetra. When Abdali forded the Yamuna at Baghpat, this meant the entire supply lines was cut off. This was the strategic blunder that finally resulted in the defeat.
Yes, history would have changed completely if the Marathas had won the third battle of Panipat. Though one would never know what exactly happened, the fact is that it was disunity among Indian rulers and lack of support from non marathas to the marathas that led to this defeat. Wish we would learn from history and not let it repeat itself. On a brighter side, Anna Hazare has shown that unity can dispel any problems.
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