Truth about Battle of Karnal ⚔️ - A falsely hyped battle that makes it look like Nadir Shah gave the deathblow to Mughals.
Battle of Karnal 1739 CE has been deliberately hyped up to literally steal credit of Maratha Empire’s efforts & give it to invaders like Nadir Shah & Abdali.
Persian threat
It has to be first clarified that Anti-Maratha British-Knighted Sir Jadunath Sarkar HIMSELF stated in his book “Nadir Shah in India” that Nadir’s invasion was a DIRECT reaction to Maratha invasion of Delhi in 1737 CE which showed how powerless the Mughals had become.
Even before we come to Nadir Afsharid invasion of India, his predecessor Shah Abbas II (1642-1666 CE) had ALREADY threatened Mughal Badshah Alamgir Aurangzeb that the Persians could invade India to put down disorders, chief of them being the MARATHA Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaja! Nadir Shah ALSO justified his Invasion of India itself on pretext of expelling Mahrattas like Abdali & Gulam Qadir had later! Nadir Shah himself officially declared his invasion to be for the cause of “Islam” - Though he ran off with the treasure like the petty looter he was.
Numeric disparity
At maximum, Mughals had ONLY 75,000 fighters. And only 10% of them engaged in combat, and gave up after 3 hours. After that there wasn’t even any violence. Compare such an unmanly worthless conflict with glorious events like South Indian, Bangāl, Panipat Campaign of Marathas.
Even though Afsharid Persians claimed to have 40,000 fighters, in total they had a horde of 160,000 unburdened mounted warriors. Even their retainers were ARMED & MOUNTED! This is exactly how the real huge numbers of Durrani-Rohilla Pasthun horde at Panipat were also hidden.
Poor fight
Mughal Losses were less than 8,000 slain in total, all of them were bozos. The Mughal servants of these two Sardars (Khan Dauran and Saadat Khan) looted their own camps and fled after Nadir Shah’s attacks.
Persian losses were 2,500 killed and 5,000+ heavily wounded, despite extensive usage of ranged weaponry.
Mughals could have defeated Persians, or at least carried on the conflict for longer duration but Mughal Rangeela ordered his whole army to disband & return to their homes!
Even though that battle ended in 3 hours, the actual Mughal Army surrendered after 9 days due to their own stupid Rangeela Badshah’s fault.
Marathas vs Afghans at Panipat, 25,000 Marathas killed after nearly 12 hours of combat on field. Campaign lasted nearly a year. Mughals vs Persians at Karnal, 10,000 Mughals killed and ended conflict within 3 hours. Surrendered after 9 days.
Bankruptcy and copying the marAThas
Another argument that is made is that Nadir Shah “bankrupted” the Mughals. The truth is that the Mughals were already brought to that point by the MARATHAS during the 27 Years War of Hindu Liberation (1680-1707 CE) against Aurangzeb as directly admitted by Nizam Asaf Jah himself! The total computed liquidated cash loot of Mughals seized by Nadir Shah was only 15 Crore Rupees. The other looted properties were no doubt considerably expensive & handicapped Mughal potential to raise forces even in desperation in future, but they were already long gone.
Siyar-Ul-Mutakherin records how Nadir Shah upheld all dignity of the Mughal Emperor on legitimate grounds. His concern was loot and securing territories as “salary” for his position under the Kabul Subehdar mask, just as Marathas had masked their annexation of Malwa. Simply annexing Sindh, Kabul, Punjab is no deathblow to Mughal Empire. Nadir Shah COPIED Maratha Hindupati Padshah Chattrapati Shahu Maharaj’s tactic of annexing territory to pay for “protection army”. Mughals anyway had just 1 decent pitch army roaming around under Saadat Khan.
Maratha reaction
Meanwhile, in the Deccan, most Maratha forces were engaged in the much more significant brutal war against the Portuguese in Konkan. When Peshwa Bajirao’s report was sent to Chattrapati Shahu Maharaja about Nadir Shah’s invasion, he was in a meeting with Portuguese peace envoys. When report of Nadir Shah’s invasion came from Peshwa Bajirao, the great nationalist Chattrapati Shahu Maharaja swung into rage and threw off his turban to the ground and roared in wrath at the Portuguese for costing over 20,000 Maratha lives who could have defended the nation.
Despite this, the Maratha forces were being rallied again after concluding the Maratha-Portuguese War. Peshwa Bajirao’s letter to Jallādat-E-Intehā Pilajirao Jadhavrao clearly reveals that Maratha countermeasures against Nadir were also being formed at the time.
After getting done with loot Nadir Shah forgot all about battling the Marathas or anything like that. He simply wrote a bombastic hollow letter of warning to Peshwa Bajirao and left India - Of course, without even waiting for a reply. Instead of combatting an actual military power like Marathas, Nadir Shah fled back with loot.
The official statement issued in Hindupati Padshah Chattrapati Shahu Maharaja’s Darbar was that Nadir Shah had fled India out of the fear of Marathas. As such we uphold this narrative.
Following the demise of Peshwa Bajirao afterwards, in the investiture speech of Chattrapati Shahu Maharaja to the new Peshwa Balaji Bajirao, the Chattrapati speaks of how Bajirao Peshwa was sent on his way to pursue Nadir Shah and win BACK the looted Indian wealth.
Conclusion
The final conclusion is that Nadir Shah, Abdali, were all hyenas who came to India once Marathas had already wrecked the Mughals in 27 Years War. Mughals never held the spine to counter any invader effectively. Yet this truth has been flipped and misrepresented.
Marathas had national ethos to prepare immediately for countering an invader like Nadir Shah, despite having suffered seriously in their wars in Konkan. Even after Nadir marched back to his country they STILL had plans to pursue him and loot the wealth for India’s sake.