The battle took place on 28 March 1737 between the

Marathas The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...

and the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

at Talkatora near

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. It was part of the Later Mughal-Maratha Wars (1728–1763).

Background

On 12 November 1736, the

Maratha The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed a ...

general

Bajirao Baji Rao I (18 August 1700 – 28 April 1740), born as Visaji, also known as Bajirao Ballal (Pronunciation: ad͡ʒiɾaːʋ bəlːaːɭ, was the 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. During his 20-year tenure as a Peshwa, he defeated Nizam-ul- ...

advanced on

Old Delhi Old Delhi or Purani Dilli is an area in the Central Delhi district of Delhi, India. It was founded as a walled city named Shahjahanabad in 1648, when Shah Jahan (the Mughal emperor at the time) decided to shift the Mughal capital from Agra. T ...

to attack the Mughal capital. Mughal emperor

Muhammad Shah Mirza Nasir-ud-Din Muḥammad Shah (born Roshan Akhtar; 7 August 1702 – 26 April 1748) was the 13th Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1719 to 1748. He was son of Khujista Akhtar, the fourth son of Bahadur Shah I. After being chosen by the ...

sent

Saadat Ali Khan I Saadat Ali Khan Nishapuri (c. 1680 – 19 March 1739) was the Subahdar Nawab of Awadh (Oudh) from 26 January 1722 to 1739 and the son of Muhammad Nasir. At age 25 he accompanied his father on the final campaign of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb a ...

with a 150,000-strong army to stop the Maratha advance on Delhi. But Bajirao's subordinate chiefs

Malhar Rao Holkar Malhar Rao Holkar (16 March 1693 – 20 May 1766) was a noble subedar of the Maratha Empire, in present-day India. He was one of the early officers along with Ranoji Scindia to help spread the Maratha rule to northern states and was given the e ...

and Pilaji Jadhav crossed the river

Yamuna The Yamuna ( Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of B ...

and looted

Ganga-Yamuna Doab ''Doab'' () is a term used in South Asia Quote: "Originally and chiefly in South Asia: (the name of) a strip or narrow tract of land between two rivers; spec. (with) the area between the rivers Ganges and Jumna in northern India." for the tract ...

, Saadat Khan defeated the maratha forces under Malhar Rao and retired to

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...

. Bajirao's army advanced to Delhi and encamped near Talkatora.

Battle

Muhammad Shah sent Mir Hasan Khan Koka with an army to intercept Bajirao. The Mughals led an attack on Maratha army but were repulsed with heavy losses.

Aftermath

The battle signified the further expansion of the Maratha Empire towards the north. Muhammad Shah called upon the Nizam's and Nawab's armies to destroy the Maratha Army. The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Nawab of Bhopal left Hyderabad to protect the

from the invasion of the Marathas, but they were defeated decisively in the

Battle of Bhopal The Battle of Bhopal was fought on 24 December 1737 in Bhopal between the Maratha Empire and the combined army of the Nizam and several Mughal generals. Background As the Mughal empire continued to weaken after Aurangzeb's death, the Maratha Pe ...

(24 December 1737). The Marathas extracted large tributaries from the Mughals, and signed a treaty which ceded

Malwa Malwa is a historical region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range. Politically and administratively, it is also sy ...

to the Marathas. The Maratha plunder weakened the Mughal Empire, which got further weakened after successive invasions of

Nadir Shah Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian ...

in 1739 and

Ahmad Shah Abdali Ahmad Shāh Durrānī ( ps, احمد شاه دراني; prs, احمد شاه درانی), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (), was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern Afghanistan. In July 1747, Ahm ...

in the 1750s. The continuous attacks led the Marathas to wage another Battle of Delhi in 1757 against the Rohillas who were pushed out, which largely effaced the remaining central authority of the Mughal Empire.Robinson, Howard; James Thomson Shotwell (1922). "Mogul Empire and the Marathas". The Development of the British Empire. Houghton Mifflin. p. 106–132.

References

{{MarathaEmpire Delhi 1737 Delhi 1737 Delhi 1737 1737 in Asia 1737 in India 18th century in Delhi

Background

Battle

Aftermath

See also

References