The extent of the losses on both sides is heavily disputed by historians, but it is believed that between 60,000 and 70,000 troops were killed in the fighting, while the numbers of injured and prisoners taken vary considerably.

[19] British historian Grant Duff includes an interview of a survivor of these massacres in his History of the Marathas and generally corroborates this number.

Determined to retaliate, Adina Beg Khan allied with Jassa Singh Ahluwalia by paying a large tribute and permitting the Sikhs to plunder the Jalandhar Doab and defeated the Afghans at Battle of Mahilpur (1757).

Raghunathrao and Malhar Rao Holkar, the two commanders-in-chief of the Maratha forces, remained in Lahore for three months after which they retired to the Deccan leaving Adina in sole control.

[33] The Marathas, under the command of Sadashivrao Bhau, responded by gathering an army of between 45,000 and 60,000, which was accompanied by roughly 200,000 non-combatants, a number of whom were pilgrims desirous of making pilgrimages to Hindu holy sites in northern India.

[citation needed] Grant Duff, describing the Maratha army:[34] The lofty and spacious tents, lined with silks and broadcloths, were surmounted by large gilded ornaments, conspicuous at a distance...

Vast numbers of elephants, flags of all descriptions, the finest horses, magnificently caparisoned ... seemed to be collected from every quarter ... it was an imitation of the more becoming and tasteful array of the Mughuls in the zenith of their glory.The Marathas had gained control of a considerable part of India in the intervening period (1712–1757).

By the end of 1759 Abdali with his Qizilbash and the Afghan tribes,[31] had reached Lahore as well as Delhi and defeated the smaller enemy garrisons, and was joined by the Muslims of Northern India, the Rohillas, and Shuja-ud-Daula.

[37] Ahmed Shah, at this point, withdrew his army to Anupshahr, on the frontier of the Rohilla country, where he successfully convinced the Nawab of Oudh Shuja-ud-Daula to join his alliance against the Marathas.

The first blood was drawn when the leader of the Rohillas, an Indian Muslim named Qutb Khan, attacked a small Maratha army led by Dattaji Shinde at Burari Ghat.

[47] Mian Qutb Shah, who was responsible for beheading Dattaji Shinde at the Battle of Barari Ghat was executed by the Marathas after their capture of Kunjpura.

Between 23 and 25 October they were able to cross at Baghpat(a small town about 24 miles up the river), unopposed by the Marathas who were still preoccupied with the sacking of Kunjpura and visit to nearby Kurukshetra; an important Hindu pilgrimage destination.

However, on the afternoon of 26 October, Ahmad Shah's advance guard reached Samalkha, about halfway between Sonepat and Panipat, where they encountered the vanguard of the Marathas.

A fierce skirmish ensued, in which the Afghans lost 1000 men but drove the Marathas back to their main body, which kept retreating slowly for several days.

In skirmishes that followed, Govind Pant Bundele, with 10,000 light cavalry who weren't formally trained soldiers, was on a foraging mission with about 500 men.

In this order the army of Ahmed Shah moved forward, leaving him at his preferred post in the centre, which was now in the rear of the line, from where he could watch and direct the battle.

Nevertheless, the first Afghan attack by Najib Khan's Rohillas was broken by Maratha bowmen and pikemen, along with a unit of the famed Gardi musketeers stationed close to the artillery positions.

He sent his bodyguards to call up his 15,000 reserve troops from his camp and arranged them as a column in front of his cavalry of musketeers (Qizilbash) and 2,000 swivel-mounted shutarnaals or Ushtranaal—cannons—on the backs of camels.

By 16:00 hrs, the tired Maratha infantry began to succumb to the onslaught of attacks from fresh Afghan reserves, protected by armoured leather jackets.

[19] Sadashiv Rao Bhau who had not kept any reserves, seeing his forward lines dwindling, civilians behind and upon seeing Vishwasrao disappear in the midst of the fighting, felt he had no choice but to come down from his elephant and lead the battle.

Bhau's wife Parvatibai, who was assisting in the administration of the Maratha camp, escaped to Pune with her bodyguard, Janu Bhintada along with Nana Fadnavis under the protection of Malhar Rao Holkar's contingent.

Though the infantry of Marathas was organized along European lines and their army had some of the best French-made guns of the time, their artillery was static and lacked mobility against the fast-moving Afghan forces.

Ahmad Shah's superiority in pitched battle could've been averted by guerrilla warfare, as advised by Malharrao Holkar and Suraj Mal.

[56] After the defeat the Marathas fled in all directions, and the Afghans, Mughals, Rohillas and Awadh troops fell upon them and were busy in plundering and slaying soldiers and civilians.

[18][19] According to Hamilton, a reporter of the Bombay Gazette, about half a million Marathi people were present there in Panipat town and he gives a figure of 40,000 prisoners as executed by Afghans.

[62][63] Siyar-ut-Mutakhirin says:[60] The unhappy prisoners were paraded in long lines, given a little parched grain and a drink of water, and beheaded... and the women and children who survived were driven off as slaves – twenty-two thousand, many of them of the highest rank in the land.The bodies of Vishwasrao and Bhau were recovered by the Marathas and were cremated according to their custom.

Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao, uninformed about the state of his army, was crossing the Narmada with a relief force and supplies when he heard of the defeat.

[64] The Marathas never fully recovered from the loss at Panipat, but they remained the largest empire in the Indian subcontinent and managed to retake Delhi ten years later.

In addition, Najib and Munir-ud-daulah agreed to pay to Abdali, on behalf of the Mughal emperor, an annual tribute of four million rupees, which was never actually paid.

Crippled by Madhavrao's untimely death at the age of 28, infighting ensued among Maratha chiefs soon after, and they were ultimately defeated and annexed by the British East India Company administration in 1819.