पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

100 PANIPAT. 1761
country due to the rebellious attitude of his Durrani troops, and had, there-
fore, to come back with the elephant which was being carried as a present to
Abdali. 18
Estimate of the Loss of Human Lives in the Battle
The last trace of resistance on the battle-field ceased at 4 P. M. on that
day, when two hours of day-light still remained. This fact, together with the
fact of the day being the eighth of the bright moon on which the moon was over-
head in the evening casting no shadow and setting after midnight, gave ample
time and scope for the Afghans to pursue the fugitives and kill as many of
them as possible. It is difficult to estimate the number of Maratha soldiers and
non-combatants slaughtered, but the total was not less than one lakh. Out of
the 60,000 soldiers, possibly half the number died on the battle field fighting
face to face. Some 10,000 more must have died in the pursuit. Of the re-
maining 20,000, 10,000 definitely reached Gwalior in safety after a fortnight.
The rest died on the way fighting with the villagers or on account of heavy
wounds, exhaustion, starvation and disease. Of the survivors, too, half only
had run away with their horses, the rest had slowly trudged back on foot losing
their horses to the robbers on the way. Amongst the soldiers who lost their lives,
Bhau, Vishwasrao, Samsher Bahadur (who had extricated himself out of the
final struggle after receiving heavy wounds and run back upto Deeg in the
Jat's dominion to die there), Yashvantrao Pawar, Janakoji Shinde (who was
slaughtered in captivity), Ibrahim Khan Gardi with his brother-in law and
son, Santaji Wagh, Manaji Paygude, Khanderao Nimbalkar, Sonaji Bhapkar,
Tukoji Shinde, Dadji Darekar and Narayan Bapuji Rethrekar were the most
notable, though practically all the soldiers who died on the battle-field were ex-
perienced men who had fought in more than one battle.
In the camp were probably one lakh and a half of non combatants. Of
these some 6,000 found their way to the non hostile camp of Shuja-ud-daulah
and got a shelter there. They were protected from the fury of the Afghans and
safely sent back to Jatwada after the return of Ahmad Shah to Delhi. Some
22,000 persons were captured as slaves by the Afghans the next day. Of these
a considerable number were women belonging either to the servant or concu-
bine class with perhaps a few hundred of married women, who had accom-
panied their husbands for pilgrimage. These were sold by their Afghan cap-
tors to Indian soldiers. Of the rest, possibly some 50,000 were slaughtered
in cold blood by the Afghans on the day after the battle for religious merit.
According to Kashiraj, every Durrani soldier slaughtered a hundred or two
in this way, which is obviously a gross exaggeration, because if we take even
10,000 Durranis to have done this, it would bring the total slaughter to
10,00,000! Many persons who had foolishly returned to Panipat in the even-
ing of the battle and taken shelter in the walled town, were, the next day,
hunted out and put to the sword by the hostile townsmen themselves. The
Bhau Bakhar reports a curious permission granted by Ahmad Shah to the sons
18 Raj. 6 472