What is Third Battle of Panipat?
The '''Third Battle of Panipat''' was a major battle of [[India]]n history, fought on 14th January 1761.<ref>Spear, Percival, 'A History of India' part 2</ref> It was fought between the [[Afghan Empire|Afghan]] forces of [[Ahmad Shah Durrani]] along with his local Rohilla and other [[Pathan]] and [[Oudh]] allies, against the [[Maratha Empire]].<ref>Roy, K, 'Indias Historic Battles', 2004</ref> The Durrani Afghan forces and their allies finally won and defeated the Marathas.<ref>Majumdar,R. 'An Advanced History of India' 4th ed Delhi, 1998</ref> The place of battle field is disputed by historians, but most of them are in favour of Horiana in [[Punjab region|Punjab]] region not far away from Delhi. The Marathas dug a [[trench]] which was three kilometres long and four hundred metres wide. Ahmad Shah Durrani showed his shrewdness by grounding pretended [[Tent|tents]] behind which there was a four kilometres long curtain. Behind the banner of curtain Ahmad Shah Durrani dug four kilometres long and twenty feet wide canals. By extracting mud from the channel a five feet high, twenty feet wide and four kilometres long road was made behind which Afghan riflemen took safe positions targeting advancing Maratha soldiers. Durrani laid his short range movable [[Cannon|cannons]] on the backs of [[Camel|camels]] behind the road from which cannon fire could target the advancing Maratha soldiers over the heads of his own forces. There were four feeder roads one kilometre away from each other on which Afgan horsemen could come down to the battle field and if needed could retreat behind the shadow of the five feet high covering road. These four feeder roads were short, narrow and sloping to the battle field. Durrani tried to bait Maratha troops to advance and Marathas stepped into this trap. Afghan riflemen and short range cannons fired onto the Maratha Army and Marathas began to fall one after another. In the final stage of battle Durrani's left flank and right flank came down to battle field surrounding Maratha forces on