Capture of Delhi
Sikh armies raided Delhi and entered the Red Fort. Under the settlement that followed, Baghel Singh stayed to build gurdwaras at the Sikh sites of the city.
In the 1770s and 1780s the Sikh misls raided regularly across the Yamuna into the Doab and up to Delhi, where the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II was almost powerless.
In March 1783 an army of some forty thousand, under Baghel Singh, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, entered Delhi. The Sikhs camped at the place still called Tis Hazari, sacked parts of the city and entered the Red Fort; Jassa Singh Ahluwalia is said to have sat on the imperial throne, and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia took away a stone slab from the palace, which is still kept at Amritsar.
Under a settlement with the emperor, Baghel Singh stayed on with four thousand men, received a share of the city's revenue, and built seven gurdwaras at places sacred to the Gurus, including Sis Ganj, Rakab Ganj and Bangla Sahib.
Same era
Misls, Mughals and Afghans, 1709 – 1799
Banda Singh's first great strike, on a wealthy town that was home to the executioners of Guru Tegh Bahadur and the younger Sahibzade.
Banda Singh avenged Pir Budhu Shah, who had been killed by Sadhaura's governor for helping Guru Gobind Singh.
The peasant army of Banda Singh routed the Sirhind army and killed Wazir Khan, the man who had executed the Guru's younger sons. Sirhind fell two days later.
The emperor himself marched against the Sikh capital. A Sikh named Gulab Singh put on Banda Singh's clothes and was captured in his place while Banda slipped away.
Banda Singh and his followers held out in a walled compound for eight months, eating grass and bark, before surrendering. They were marched to Delhi and executed.
Nadir Shah crushed the Mughal army in a few hours, then sacked Delhi and carried off the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor.
Chhota GhallugharaMay – June 1746 · About 7,000 Sikhs killed and 3,000 executed (traditional figures)The 'Lesser Holocaust'. To avenge his brother's death, Lakhpat Rai hunted down Sikhs in the Kahnuwan swamps. Thousands were killed and captives were beheaded in Lahore.
The only time Abdali was beaten in a pitched battle in India. Sikh bands attacked his retreating columns.