Why were so many of India’s most important battles fought in this 30 mile zone? From Babur’s invasion of India, Hemu and Akbar’s war, to Nadir Shah’s invasion of India, they all haopened here. Why was this place so important in our itihaas?
Three words - Location, Location,Location
Here are excerpts from a book written about a Century ago , this gives a brief history which would establish the relevance of Karnal .
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No District of India can boast of a more ancient history than Karnal, as almost every town or stream is connected with the sacred legends of the Mahabharata. The city of Karnal itself,from which the modern District has taken its name, is said by tradition to owe its foundation to Raja Kama ( Karna ?), the mythical champion of the Kauravas in the great war which forms the theme of the national epic, while the greater part of the northern uplands are included in the
Kurukshetra or battle-field of the opposing armies of the Kauravas and Pandavas. From the same authority we learn that Panipat, in the south of the District, was one of the pledges demanded from Duryodhan by Yudisthira as the price of peace in that famous conflict.
In historical times, the plains of Panipat have three times been the theatre of battles which decided the fate of Upper India. It was here that Ibrahim Lodi and his vast host were defeated in 1526 by the veteran army of Babar, when the Mughal dynasty first made good its pretensions to the Empire of Delhi.
Thirty years later, in 1556, the greatest of that line, Akbar, re-asserted the claims of his family on the same battle-field against the Hindu general of the house of Sher Shah, which had driven the heirs of Babar from the throne for a brief interval. Finally, under the walls of Panipat, on the 7th of January 1761, was fought the battle which shattered the Maratha confederation, and raised Ahmad Shah Durani for a while to the position of arbiter of the entire empire.
It was at Karnal town that the Persian Nadir Shah defeated the feeble Mughal Emperor, Muhammad Shah, in 1759. During the troublous period which ensued, the Sikhs managed to introduce themselves into the country about Karnal; and in 1767, one of their chieftains,
Desu Singh, appropriated the fort of Kaithal, which had been built during the reign of Akbar. His descendants, the Bhais of Kaithal,were reckoned amongst the most important cis-Sutlej princes. The country immediately surrounding the town of Karnal was occupied about the same date by the Raja of Jind ; but in 1795 was captured by the ubiquitous Marathas, and bestowed by them upon George Thomas, the military adventurer of Hariana. He was, however, almost immediately dispossessed by the Sikh Raja, Gurdit Singh of Lddwa, who held it till 1805, when it was captured by an English force, and confiscated as a punishment for the Raja having actively opposed the British after the battle of Delhi in September 1803.
Karnal was included in the Conquered Provinces which we obtained from the Marathas by the treaties of Sarji-Anjangaon and Poona(1803-44).
In pursuance of the policy of Lord Cornwallis, Kaithal, and the numerous petty States which bordered Karnal on the north-west, remained in the hands of their Sikh possessors, while the remainder of the District was parcelled out among those who had rendered us service. Of these
latter, the Pathan Nawab of Kunjpura, and a Hindu family who still enjoy the revenue of the town and pargand of Karnal, alone retain their grants, all the others having lapsed on the death of the holders.
Under Sikh rule, the sole object of the local governments appears to have been the collection of the largest possible revenue. Every rupee that could be extracted from the native cultivators was pressed into the fiscal bag of their Sikh over-lords, while cattle-lifting and open violence went unpunished on every side. Sir H. Lawrence, who effected the land settlement of Kaithal after the British occupation in 1843, described the Sikh system as one of ' sparing the strong and squeezing the weak.'
Much of the District had formed a sort of No-Man's land between the Sikhs and the Marathas, and when we took it in 1803, ' more than four-fifths was overrun by forests, and the inhabitants either removed or were exterminated.
In 1819, the Delhi territory was parcelled out into Districts, one of which had its head-quarters at Panipat. The northern portion of the present District, held by the Sikh princes, lapsed from time to time into the hands of the British.
Kaithal fell to us on the death of Desu Singh's last representative, in 1843. The disorder of the Sikh Government was immediately suppressed by prompt measures ; two large cattle-lifting raids weremade within a week of the British occupation, and the timely severity with which the culprits were apprehended and punished taught the predatory classes what treatment they might expect from the hands of their new masters.
The petty State of Thanesar lapsed in 1850, and its capital was made for a time the head-quarters of a separate District, in which Kaithal was included ; but after the Mutiny of 1857, when the Delhi territory was transferred to the Punjab, Thanesar District was broken up, and its pargands redistributed in 1862 between Karnal and Ambala (Umballa). The course of events during late years has been marked by few incidents, and nothing more than local marauding occurred during the troubles of 1857. The towns are not generally in a flourishing condition, and the opening of the railway on the opposite bank of the Jumna has somewhat prejudicially affected the trade of Karnal. But although the District cannot compare with its wealthy neighbours in the Doab, it still possesses great agricultural resources and considerable commerce.