Hemu did not have much time to enjoy the throne of Delhi. Just three weeks after his victory at Tuglaqabad (See ‘The Outskirts of an Empire’) he would march out once again to face the vengeful Mughal Army, now returning in strength from their campaign in Punjab. He would confront them just around seven kilometers South East of the spot where the first battle of Panipat was fought (See ’An Empire Carved through Cannon Smoke) and from where Babur carved his Empire. Here near a village called Saundhapur, the Second Battle of Panipat would decide the fate of India.
Akbar was camping with his army in Jullandhar when the remnants of his force at Delhi reached him with news of their loss at Tughlaqabad. The 13 year old was just a titular head. The real power lay in the hands of his loyal, if overbearing Bairam Khan. Alarmed by the defeat at Tughlaqabad, most of his Generls were of the view that they should withdraw to Kabul. It was the domineering personality of Bairam Khan that put paid to any defeatist talk. To drive home his point he had Tardi Beg executed for his failure to defeat Delhi. (Though that had more to do with personal enmity than any stratagem) and promising the same fate for any man who wavered, he prepared the army to move back towards Delhi for battle with Hemu.
Shaken out of their despondency, the Mughal Army marched towards Delhi under the command of Ali Quli Khan the ‘Sar-e-Lashkar’. Akbar himself took no part in the battle wisely leaving it to his father’s veteran fighters. The army reached Panipat on 04 November and there it deployed. Arriving early at the battlefield gave it a considerable advantage. And fortune conspired to give it another decisive advantage.
Hemu left Delhi on 02 November and moved towards Panipat on hearing of the advance of the Mughal army. During his advance march itself, he made an uncharacteristic error. He sent his entire field park of 51 guns ahead with his advance guard. The Advance Guard was ambushed on 4 November with a force of around 10,000 Mughal Cavalry who routed them, and worse captured, the precious cannon. Even before the battle had begun, Hemu was bereft of his fire support. That would prove crucial during the battle.
Yet, Hemu shrugged off the loss and reached Panipat on night 04 November. As per some reports, that night – the last night of his life – he had a dream. He saw himself being yanked from his elephant by a chain of arrows – a dream his pandits interpreted as assign that he would be defeated and captured. That dream would prove prophetically true.
Hemu lined up his army at dawn the next day. Hemu was numerically stronger with around 30,000 Rajput and Afghan warriors and 500 prized elephants. He himself was in the center atop his war elephant Hawai – with a force of around 12,000, with two wings of 10,000 each on either flank, the right commanded by the Afghan general Shadi Khan Kakkar and the left by his nephew Rammaya. Around three kilometers opposite him were the Mughal army in a mirror formation. But with one major difference. Ahead of their position was their cannon – now reinforced by Hemu’s own captured guns- which could pour a withering torrent of fire on the enemy.
Hemu made the first move, even though his troops had arrived just around midnight the night before, while the Mughals had been awaiting them for two full days. At dawn, both his flanks launched a violent attack on the Mughal positions. Yet the Mughal cavalry, instead of retreating, wheeled to the sides and began pouring arrows from the flanks, and slashing at the weaker legs of the heavily armoured elephants from the sides. Hemu’s attack was further stalled by a large ditch, whose presence they were not aware of. Hemu’s initial attack paused and around 6000 heavily armed Mughal cavalry tore through his left flank and killed the commander. Hemu, seeing the gravity of the situation, now led a counter attack, forcing the Mughal cavalry to retreat and managed to salvage the situation.
By noon, the battle hung in balance. Hemu led anther attack using his center and left flank in a coordinated attack on the Mughal positions and slowly the battle tilted in his favour. Both wings of the Mughal army were falling back under his onslaught and Hemu himself led the attack straight at the enemy center. The Mughal lines were crumbling and it seemed any moment now, that the troops would break and run. Then the arrow came.
Hemu’s imposing presence atop his ornately armoured and heavily bejeweled elephant Hawai was the rallying point of his men. Yet the Mughals had nominated a screen of archers who were specifically tasked to fire at Hemu, knowing that his fall would change the battle. In the shower of arrows that came towards him, one found its way through his body armour, face mask and helmet to strike his only exposed part – his eye.
Dazed and badly injured, Hemu still pulled the arrow out, bandaged the wound with a scarf and tried to continue, but the shock and loss of blood took its toll and he swayed and collapsed in his howdah. Seeing their leader fall, the army which was on the cusp of victory lost heart. His men halted and without any one to direct their actions, began withdrawing. The Mughals seized the moment and launched their final counter attack with all the cavalry at their disposal, attacking along both flanks. Hemu’s mahout tried to take his master back to safety, but was intercepted, captured and led back to Akbar, with Hemu still unconscious in the howdah.
By then the battle was lost. Over 5000 of Hemu’s men lay dead with many more killed while fleeing. Bairam Khan urged Akbar to kill Hemu, which Akbar refused – and an enraged Bairam Khan decapitated him with his own sword. His beheaded body was placed on a gibbet in Delhi and Akbar himself entered the city in triumph two days later. The stage was now set for Mughal rule in India which would go on for another 250 years.
All because of a fateful arrow.