Posted on: 24 May 2011

The battle of Panipat 13 January 1761

Drawing of the battle of Panipat, 13 January 1761, by an anonymous artist in the Faizabad style, dated c.1770. Inscribed with the names of the principal combatants in Persian characters. The drawing is done with some colour; on paper backed with cloth, through which can be seen a drawing of a horseman and attendant. Ahmad Shah Durrani and his forces are defeating ShadaSiva Bhao and the Maratha armies; Ahmad Shah Durrani rides a brown stallion surrounded by his close supporters. On his left are Najib Khan and Shuja' al-Daula with their forces, on his right are Ahmad Khan Bangash and Hafiz Rahmat, before them a cavalry attack is made by Shah Wali Khan. Within the buildings of the Panipat camp troops are raping and committing atrocities while outside the wounded Bhao is helped from his horse; the centre of the picture is dominated by the arc of the two lines of guns with smoke and devastation between them. In 1760 the Marathas occupied Delhi, having already conquered the Punjab, offering a serious threat to the Muslim domination of the north of India. Their leader Viswas Rao was being advised by Sadasiva Bhao who organised the Maratha army under his generalship. To oppose them an army was formed by a Muslim alliance between Shuja' al-Daula of Oudh, Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Rohilla Afghans. Under the threat the Bhao fixed his camp and headquarters at Panipat in October 1760, which proved to be a tactical error. By January the Maratha army and its supporters were suffering famine under siege conditions, and they were obliged to start the offensive. Ahmad Shah's victory was decisive and the slaughter enormous.

Source : British Library


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Zoomify image: The battle of Panipat 13 January 1761 http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/zoomify55447.html

The artist has managed to provide an aerial view of the battle much before cameras came into being!

You could zoom into different parts of the picture and get a pictorial idea of the narrative. Its quite amazing...never seen such a painting !

very interesting illustration, indeed!

It is a strange painting when zoomed in... the lower left portion seems unlikely from an 18th century from Faizabadi artist.

The depiction of rape and atrocities in the lower left area does not fit with the cultural milieu of 1770 Faizabad. In fact, such a display seems more like propaganda after the “Indian Mutiny” of 1857. The “Indian Mutiny” followed by the “White Mutiny” of 1857-1861, came at a time where railways had increased the speed of communications from the age old travel speed of horses. England, and much of Europe united in shock against the cruel reports of mutiny and murder that reached from India. 1857-58, three genres of Mutiny writing are delineated, with a number of recurrent rhetorical strategies designed to represent Anglo-Indian administrators and soldiers, and the British Empire more generally, in the most favorable light possible. Many of these strategies sought to elevate the British by degrading the Indians. Articles like "The Company's Raj" and "Our Indian Empire," both in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, represent Indians as rapacious savages menacing the virtue of Britain. http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/1857/intro.html

What is the size of the painting? The piece reminds me of the Rivera Court at the Detroit Museum of Art and has similar eye for detail and versatility. More so, considering this sketch was rendered in 1770, a few years after the watershed event of Modern Indian History.