Durrani at Panipat

The Mughal-Maratha War that lasted for 27 years (1680-1707) had led to massive loss of territory for the Marathas, who were thoroughly outclassed by Aurangzeb. However, post-Aurangzeb, a war of succession took place between his sons which created a power vacuum in the Mughal Empire, and inevitably, it went into a downward spiral.

A portrait of the Third Battle of Panipat (c. 1770)

This enabled the Marathas to snatch back the territory they had previously ceded to them. In 1737, the Mughals received a beating from the Marathas under Baji Rao on the periphery of Delhi which brought much of the Mughal territories to the south of Agra under Maratha control. Baji Rao's son, Balaji Rao further extended Mughal control to Punjab in 1758. This is when they came under direct conflict against Ahmad Shah Durrani's son, Timur Shah Durrani and Jahan Khan, whose armies they ransacked and looted.

Upon hearing this, Ahmad Shah Durrani sensed that the Marathas were a potent threat and started curating an army of Pashtun and Baloch tribes. This army helped him score several strategic wins against smaller Maratha regiments in Punjab. He entered into an alliance with Rohilla Afghans of the Gangetic Doab and with the Nawab of Awadh, Shuja-ud-Daulah. The alliance with the former was, in particular, a thorn in the Maratha side because the financial resources it yielded assisted Durrani's army in their long stay in North India.

The Marathas moved Northward to counter the Afghan threat. They came into conflict with them before the third battle of Panipat and even defeated the Afghans at Kunjpura. However, when it mattered the most, Durrani's men prevailed over the Marathas who put up a valiant effort but were no match for the Afghan's quantitative and qualitative advantage. The Maratha chiefs also were not united in their cause against a single enemy and had their own interests, which severely weakened the Maratha resolve.