Azad67

The Jats were good fighters too but they knew their limit. Fighting the Afghans under a leader like Abdali in a direct engagement was no easy task. They tried to explain this to the Marathas, but the Maratha military leaders closed their ears to all sane advise. They were like the Japanese militarists who insisted on attacking pearl harbor and taking on a greater power like the Americans.

But even then the Marathas were initially winning the battle. The Maratha artillery was being led by Gardi Khan whose accurate shots were taking the toll on the Afghans. But the Afghans wore armour which the Marathas didn't and in a hand to hand fight this means a lot. Marathas and Afghans were equally good horsemen. Some say the Afghans had the advantage, some say the Marathas. But truth be told It was an even match.

Ibrahim gardi, was depicted very different in sanjay khan's great marathas serial, perhaps for political correctness. Actually he made some big blunders and embarrassment. First he charged at the left flank, ahead of the rest of maratha army. His artillary shots were flying above rohillas heads for atleast one hour. He fought bravely but in his boldness, many gardi battalions got wiped out very early on.

As far as I know Marathas got to the fringe of Peshawer before Abdali drove them out. They could easily have effaced him at Panipat but their emphasis on fighting pitched battles against numerical foes saw them being slaughtered.

We saw that Abdali struggled against guerralla warfare of sikhs and was quite helpless in dealing with insurgency. But in conventional warfare, he was much more capable and experienced commander than maratha's. He was once commander of elite corps of nadir shah afshar, the napolean of asia and his reserve force, who turned the tides of battle in panipat, were same qizalbash of afsharids.

According to our sources, marathas didnt cross indus and reach peshawer, they reached upto trans-chenab area and extracted tribute and that was one time affair.

The Jats were good fighters too but they knew their limit. Fighting the Afghans under a leader like Abdali in a direct engagement was no easy task. They tried to explain this to the Marathas, but the Maratha military leaders closed their ears to all sane advise. They were like the Japanese militarists who insisted on attacking pearl harbor and taking on a greater power like the Americans.

But even then the Marathas were initially winning the battle. The Maratha artillery was being led by Gardi Khan whose accurate shots were taking the toll on the Afghans. But the Afghans wore armour which the Marathas didn't and in a hand to hand fight this means a lot. Marathas and Afghans were equally good horsemen. Some say the Afghans had the advantage, some say the Marathas. But truth be told It was an even match.

Ibrahim gardi, was depicted very different in sanjay khan's great marathas serial, perhaps for political correctness. Actually he made some big blunders and embarrassment. First he charged at the left flank, ahead of the rest of maratha army. His artillary shots were flying above rohillas heads for atleast one hour. He fought bravely but in his boldness, many gardi battalions got wiped out very early on.

Don't know about this, but there was an incident of Afghan prisoners of war who were located behind the Marathas. These Afghan POWs managed to break free and capture some weapons and began killing the Marathas from behind. This caused panic among the Maratha soldiers who thought they were fighting a two front battle.

I have read in some books that they were not prisoners of wars , but two thousands Afghan pindari mercenaries/irregulars who were in the service of vithal shivdev and damaji gaekwar of left flank. On hearing about news of death wishwas rao in the battle, those afghan irregulars discarded their typical brownish yellow headgears and started attacking their own maratha colleagues. It caused great confusion and panic in the already much damaged left flank.

Indian sources are claiming that Marathas conquered attock and peshawer and even installed governors there. While our sources say that it were sikhs, who were the first non-muslim force from east since mahmud ghaznavi times, who conquered attock fort in 1813 and annexed peshawer to sikh kingdom in 1834. What does sikh sources say about this claim of marathas. I have to ask this question because it is present in every article on internet from indian sources, which are relevant to panipat battle.

While i agree that sikhs are brave people. But within pakhtunkhwa they were soldiers of 'invaders'. I have seen titles like "21 sikhs vs 10,000 pathan invaders". How exactly we were invaders? We were simply protecting our land from foriegn invaders. 1897 revolt was general pashtun uprising against durand line demarcation.

British used Punjabi musalman, sikhs, gurkhas and even pathans of some tribes to maintain the rule of Queen.

I agree with @Jonny101 that despite our great sacrifices in our armed and political resistance against british empire , we failed at the end as we ended up in Pakistan rather than in Afghanistan.

Perhaps the fault lies in us that we didnt adopt ourselves to modren world where education, science and technology matters.

Death of a brilliant general like hari singh nalwa , was itself a big victory !

We have our own arguements as to why jamrud was victory for us.

1- Hari singh nalwa objective was to capture jalalabad and go beyond. Afghans at that time were dealing with persian invasion (1836-38). Construction of jamrud fort that lies at the entrance of khyber, alarmed Afghans. Dost muhammad khan's objective to simply stop sikh invasion of khyber and protect jalalabad. They were too pre-occupied with persia to take on well fortified city like peshawer. Peshawer was not on menu.

2- After death of hari singh nalwa, sikhs didnt retain jamrud. They actually retreated from khyber on orders of ranjeet singh. Victory at jamrud not only ensured safety of jalalabad (and kabul) but khyber was also saved. Afghans achieved their objective i.e to repel immediate threat.

3- Sikhs failed in their encroachments on khyber and beyond

4- Immediately after battle of jamrud, dost muhammad khan focused on siege of herat by persians which lasted till 1838. Persians were defeated.

5- Why Afghans didnt make attempt on peshawer after defeating persians in 1838? Because in 1839 they were invaded by british, which lasted till 1842.

http://historyofpashtuns.blogspot.com/2014/06/battle-of-saragarhi-myths-and-facts.html?m=1

http://historyofpashtuns.blogspot.com/2014/07/afghan-sikh-wars.html?m=1

(Hi i am a pashtun from pakistan, kindly review my above article, if there mistakes or its biased then do point out)