page_title: Second Battle of Panipat
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Second Battle of Panipat / Background
caption_attribution_description: Hemu, re-imagined in this 1910s bazaar-art poster in very Mughal courtly style, and glorified in Hindi, Persian (from the Akbar-namah), and English, as "the last Hindu emperor of Hindustan", with his genius certified by the Imperial Gazetteer.
context_page_description: The Second Battle of Panipat was fought on 5 November 1556, between the Hindu emperor of north India Hem Chandra Vikramaditya and forces of Akbar. Hemu had conquered the states of Delhi and Agra a few weeks earlier by defeating the Mughals led by Tardi Beg Khan at the Battle of Delhi and proclaimed himself Raja Vikramaditya at a coronation in Purana Quila in Delhi. Akbar and his guardian Bairam Khan who, after learning of the loss of Agra and Delhi, had marched to Panipat to reclaim the lost territories. The two armies clashed at Panipat not far from the site of the First Battle of Panipat of 1526.
  Hemu and his forces held the numerical superiority. However, Hemu was wounded by an arrow in the middle of the battle and fell unconscious. Seeing their leader going down, his army panicked and dispersed. Unconscious and almost dead, Hemu was captured and subsequently beheaded by Akbar later on. The battle ended in a decisive Mughal victory.
context_section_description: Humayun, the successor of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, had lost his inheritance when he was chased out of India by Sher Shah Suri who established the Sur Empire in 1540. Delhi and Agra fell into Sher Shah's hands, but he died soon after in 1545 at Kalinjar. He was succeeded by his younger son, Islam Shah Suri, who was a capable ruler. However, upon his death in 1553, the Sur Empire was caught up in a succession battle and was plagued by rebellion and the secession of provinces. Humayun made use of this discord to recapture what was lost and on 23 July 1555, the Mughals defeated Sikandar Shah Suri and finally regained control over Delhi and Agra.
  Islam Shah's rightful successor, his 12-year-old son, Firoz Khan, had been murdered by his maternal uncle, who had taken the throne as Adil Shah Suri. The new ruler was however, more interested in the pursuit of pleasure than in the affairs of his state. Those were largely left to Hemu, an old Hindu associate of Sher Shah Suri from Rewari, who had risen from humble circumstances to become both Adil Shah's Chief Minister as well as the general of the Suri army. He was in Bengal when Humayun died on 26 January 1556. The Mughal emperor's death provided an ideal opportunity to Hemu to defeat the Mughals and reclaim lost territory.
  Hemu started a rapid march from Bengal and drove the Mughals out of Bayana, Etawah, Bharthana, Bidhuna, Lakhna, Sambhal, Kalpi, and Narnaul. In Agra, the governor evacuated the city and fled without a fight upon hearing of Hemu's impending invasion. In pursuit of the governor, Hemu reached Tughlaqabad, a village just outside Delhi where he ran into the forces of the Mughal governor of Delhi, Tardi Beg Khan, and defeated them in the Battle of Tughlaqabad. He took possession of Delhi after a day's battle on 7 October 1556 and claimed royal status assuming the title of Vikramaditya (or Bikramjit).
caption: c. 1910s portrayal of Hemu, the last Hindu Emperor of Delhi
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