How was Babur’s army superior to Ibrahim Lodi’s army?
Answers
Answer:
Babur had with him superior weaponry – a contingent of musketeers and a train of artillery. Ibrahim Lodi had a massive army of about 100,000 with some 100 elephants. Babur's right flank was along the walls of the town and thus prevented his army from being outflanked.
Babur had fought most of his battles and wars in mountainous regions where spirit, speed, ability to maneuver in constrained spaces were critical to achieve victory. On the other hand, Ibrahim Lodi, the sultan of Delhi with his massive army clearly had the advantage in the plains. In a face to face battle on the plains, the bigger force would always overcome the smaller force.
Babur needed to neutralize the strengths of Lodi (the massive army and the elephants) and leverage his advantages – his agile cavalry and the guns. He did just that. Babur decided to fight the battle near Panipat. He deployed his army to the east of the town of Panipat between the town and the Yamuna river. Babur’s right flank was along the walls of the town and thus prevented his army from being outflanked. There was a gap though between his left flank and the Yamuna. In order to protect his left flank, Babur used felled trees and dug ditches from the river all the way upto his army. The battlefield had thus been narrowed in a manner where Lodi’s army would now have to fight in a kind of “bottle neck” obviating the advantage of Lodi’s army size. Babur also protected his frontline from the rushing mass of Lodi’s army by setting up a barrier of gun carriages and other carts, 700 in number them, about 4 metres apart and tied to each other by ropes of rawhide. In the gaps between carts, Babur placed about half a dozen musketeers. All this preparation was a great defensive stance but being the aggressor there had to be an offensive approach built into Babur’s battle strategy. Here is what he did. Babur left about 5 to 6 feet wide gap between some groups of carts to enable his cavalry, who were used to maneuvering in the narrow mountain passes, could charge at Lodi’s army. Babur now waited for Lodi’s approaching army from Delhi.
Lodi too, was not intending to attack and was essentially waiting for Babur to attack his defensive positions. Lodi also had the advantage of regular and adequate supplies of food and water for his large army, given that he was the sultan. Lodi could wait for a long time, but Babur could not being the foreigner and aggressor. For 7 days, Babur waited but Lodi did not attack. Babur’s army became jittery and nervous, and so Babur decided to attack. On 19th April, 1525, Babur launched a night attack on Lodi’s army. However, instead of surprising Lodi’s men, Babur’s army found themselves against an alert and ready enemy. Babur’s army retreated back in a hurry without engaging Lodi’s army for fear of being completely routed. This emboldened Lodi and his men and they decided to attack Babur’s position. This is exactly what Babur wanted!!!!
On 21st April, Lodi attacked Babur’s army. The rushing Lodi’s army came at a fast gallop intending to overrun the Babur’s position. They were soon in trouble. Lodi’s rushing army was squeezed between the town of Panipat and the logs and ditches along the Yamuna river. They were a concentrated mass, unable to maneuver in the bottle neck. This was a perfect situation for Babur. His musketeers fired into the concentrated mass of Lodi’s army. The frontline of Lodi’s galloping army tried to break their momentum, shocked by the firing of the musketeers. This created more confusion and the compact mass of Lodi’s army was a delight for the canons. Babur then got his cavalry to move from both the flanks into the enemy’s army. This forced Lodi’s flanks to fold into the centre, adding to the concentrated mass. Also, frightened by the noise of the cannons, Lodi’s elephants ran amuck trampling his own men. The first battle of panipat lasted just 5 hours. About 15,000 of Lodi’s men were killed. Ibrahim Lodi was the only muslim king of Delhi to have ever died on the battlefield. The victory paved way for the mughal dynasty in India and Babur became the first mughal ruler.
Hi,
In the first battle fought in 1526, Babur took the field with 10,000-11,000 men and faced Delhi sultan Ibrahim Lodi who mustered a force ten times bigger in size. Such a huge force was more a liability than an asset for Lodi. There used to be complete lack of discipline and training in the Indian armies of the time. In contrast, Babur’s personality was such that his men could fight and die for him. And as compared to Lodi’s forces, Babur’s troops were battle-hardened men who had been living on the saddle for many years.
Babur had studied his enemy and terrain well. He knew that Lodi had the habit of coming out to meet his adversary. So he chose Panipat. And Lodi came out from the secured environs of Delhi to fight.
hope this will be helpful for you.