Later Mughals v2.c18.s4: Sec. 110.—Nadir Comes into Touch with the Indian Army at Karnal, 12th February.
Later Mughals v2.c18.s4
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Sec. 110.—Nadir Comes into Touch with the Indian Army at Karnal, 12th February.
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The city of Karnal lies on the ancient highway from Dihli to Lahor, about 75 miles north of the Mughal capital, 20 miles north of Panipat, and nine miles south of Taraori, where so many historic battles for deciding the lordship of Northern India have been fought. Even Kurukshetra, the scene of the mythical warfare between the Pandavas and Kauravas, is only 22 miles north of it. Hence it was in the natural fitness of things that the decisive encounter between India and Persia took place at Karnal.
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The canal of Ali Mardan Khan skirts the eastern side of the town. Between this canal and the river Jamuna east of it, there is a plain five to seven miles in breadth, fit for cavalry manœuvres on a large scale. Muhammad Shah had formed his entrenched camp along the western bank of the canal, with the walled town of Karnal immediately south of him. Sarai Azimabad, the last station of the invaders, stands 12 miles north of Karnal and some ten miles west of the canal. The first eight miles of the ground between Azimabad and Karnal were then covered with a dense jungle* with a single narrow path crossing it. The four miles immediately north of Karnal were a level plain free from jungles. Muhammad Shah's front and right were, therefore, naturally protected by the jungle and the canal respectively. The disposition of the Indian army was—the Nizam in the Van facing the north or slightly north-west with artillery on two sides of him, the Wazir in the left or west, the Emperor in the centre, and Khan Dauran in the right or east. [Jahankusha 346, 348 ; Hanway, ii. 364.]
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∗ Ali Hazin, then at Dihli, says the same thing: "The Indians having gathered their artillery around, were closely hemmed in by their own field-pieces, and as a division of the Qizilbashes had also formed a ring on every side of them, all intercourse with the outside was closed to them, and dearth and famine fell on that army.........Muhammad Shah and his innumerable multitude, finding the Qizilbash cavalry spread around them on all sides, were afraid to stir, and although they saw themselves unable to maintain their position, they remained on the spot."
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Nadir Shah had arrived at Sarai Azimabad early in the morning of Sunday, 11th February, 1739. A force of 6,000 horsemen, composed of the best troops of Kurdistan, led by Haji Khan, divided into two bodies, had previously reconnoitred the country along both banks of the canal up to the very edge of the imperial camp. These scouts now reported on the state of the ground and produced prisoners captured outside the Mughal lines.
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Learning the exact dispositions of the imperial army and the condition of the ground in its environs, Nadir Shah decided to avoid a frontal attack and make a wide detour along the east of Karnal, so as to keep touch with the Jamuna and its abundant water supply on his left flank and also to cut the Mughal line of communication with Dihli by seizing the town of Panipat in the rear. His strategy was intended to force Muhammad Shah to come out of his lines and accept battle on a field chosen by Nadir or to remain helplessly shut up in Karnal while the Persians would march to Dihli unmolested. [*Jahankusha*, 348.] This plan succeeded admirably and much sooner than was expected.
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∗ This jungle continued till the early years of the 19th century. Thorn (Memoir of the War, p. 480) writes in 1805 about the tract from Dihli to Sonepat, "The whole of this country, which was formerly fertilized by a canal dug by Ali Mardan Khan, is now overgrown with jungle, and is generally in a very desolate state."
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Before sunrise on Monday 12th February, the Persian army marched out of Sarai Azimabad, crossed the canal some nine miles east of that town, and encamped on a level plain six miles north-east of Karnal, evidently a little north of Kunjpura and within sight of the Jamuna. While the main division halted here, Nadir with a small escort galloped to the neighbourhood of Muhammad Shah’s position which was indicated by his standards and flags and the concentration of artillery round it. After reconnoitring the enemy’s numbers and dispositions, he returned to his own tents.
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In the evening a report was brought to him that Saadat Khan, who was coming from Oudh to the aid of the Emperor with 30,000 cavalry artillery and stores, had reached Panipat. Immediately a division of the Persian army was told off to intercept him. A second and very strong division was detached that very night to threaten the eastern flank of the Mughal camp, though small bodies of skirmishers had been already hovering round it at a mile’s distance, cutting off stragglers. [*Jahankusha* 349.]