Battle of Manupur (1748)

The Battle of Manupur was fought between the Mughal Empire and the Durrani Empire on 11 March 1748.[3]

Battle of Manupur
Part of Indian Campaign of Ahmad Shah Durrani
Date23 January 1748
Location
Sirhind
Result Decisive Mughal victory.[1][2]
Belligerents

Mughal Empire Supported by

Phulkian Misl		 Durrani Empire
Commanders and leaders

Ahmad Shah Bahadur Mir Mannu

Baba Ala Singh		 Ahmad Shah Durrani

Background

Following the assassination of Nader Shah, last Emperor of the Persian Afsharid dynasty, Ahmad Shah Durrani took control of Persian Afghanistan. In late 1747, he began operations against the declining Mughal Empire, taking Kabul, Peshawar, and, on 18 January 1748, Lahore. By February 1748, a Mughal army under Prince Ahmad Shah Bahadur and Qamaruddin Khan, the Subahdar of Lahore province, had assembled and was moving to drive out the Durrani army. On 1 March 1748, Ahmad Shah began searching for the Mughal army, making contact with them on 10 March outside the village of Manupur.[3]

Battle

When the Mughal commander, Qamaruddin Khan, was killed by artillery in an early exchange of fire, his son, Moin-ul-Mulk, also known as Mir Mannu, continued the battle. Ahmad Shah's Afghan troops swept aside the Mughal army's left flank and raided their baggage train but a fire beginning in a captured rocket cart went on to ignite the Durrani artillery store, roasting thousands of soldiers alive and forcing Ahmad Shah Durrani's retreat.[4]

Aftermath

After the retreat of Durrani, the panicked Mughal were unable to pursue, however Sikh bands under Charat Singh and Maharaja of Patiala Ala Singh continued to harass them as they retreated to Kabul. Thus, the first invasion of Shah proved a failure but it gave an opportunity to the Sikhs to organize themselves into Dal Khalsa, an army of Sikh Confederacy, at Amritsar in March 1748.[5][6]

References
  1. Grewal, J.S. (1990). The Sikhs of the Punjab. Cambridge University Press. p. 87. ISBN 0-521-63764-3. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  2. Jacques, Tony (2006). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges. Greenwood Press. p. 631. ISBN 978-0-313-33536-5. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  3. Liebl, Vernie (September 2020). "The Battle of Manupur" (PDF). Strategy & Tactics. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
  4. History of Islam, p. 509, at Google Books
  5. Mehta, J. L. (2005). Advanced study in the history of modern India 1707–1813. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. p. 251. ISBN 978-1-932705-54-6. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
  6. Gandhi, Rajmohan (14 September 2013). Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten. ISBN 9789383064410. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
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