Second Battle of Panipat

Second Battle Of Panipat
The defeat of Hemu, a c. 1590s painting by Kankar of the Second Battle of Panipat taken from the Akbarnama.
Date 5 November 1556 Location Panipat (in present-day Haryana, India) 29°23′41″N 76°55′34″E / 29.39472°N 76.92611°E / 29.39472; 76.92611 Result Mughal victory
Belligerents
Mughal Empire	Sur Empire
Commanders and leaders
Akbar Bairam Khan Mahmud Khan Ali Quli Khan Shaibani Sikandar Khan Uzbak Abdullah Khan Uzbak Shah Quli Mahram	Hemu † Raamya Shadi Khan Kakkar †
Strength
10,000 cavalry 200 war elephants[1]	30,000 cavalry 500 war elephants[1]
Casualties and losses
Unknown	5,000
class=notpageimage| Location within India

The Second Battle of Panipat was fought on 5 November 1556, between Akbar and the king of Delhi, Hemu. Hemu had conquered Delhi and Agra a few weeks earlier by defeating Mughal forces under Tardi Beg Khan in the battle of Delhi. He crowned himself Raja Vikramaditya at Purana Quila in Delhi.

On learning of the loss, Akbar and his guardian Bairam Khan marched to reclaim those territories. The two armies clashed at Panipat, not far from the site of the First battle of Panipat of 1526.

During the battle, Hemu was wounded by an arrow and fell unconscious. Seeing their leader going down, his army panicked and dispersed. Unconscious and almost dead, Hemu was captured and subsequently beheaded by Bairam Khan after Akbar refused to behead him to assume the title of Ghazi.