Akbar had been crowned at Kalanaur in the Punjab only months earlier. Hemu, who had risen from a Rewari merchant family to command the Sur armies, had taken Delhi and Agra and proclaimed himself king.
At Panipat an arrow hit Hemu in the eye as he fought from his elephant, and his army fled. He was captured and beheaded. The Mughals ruled the Punjab for the next two hundred years.
Same era
Mughal Punjab, 1526 – 1705
Babur's field guns and cavalry tactics destroyed a much larger Lodi army. Guru Nanak's hymns of the same years speak of the suffering of Babur's invasions.
Battle of MachhiwaraMay 1555 · Mughal victory; Humayun regains HindustanOn the Sutlej at Machhiwara the returning Mughals beat the Afghans of the Sur dynasty, and a month later won again at Sirhind.
The first armed clash of Guru Hargobind's time, fought over the founding of Sri Hargobindpur on the Beas.
Began over a hawk of Shah Jahan's that the Guru's Sikhs would not give back. A Mughal detachment attacked during a wedding in the Guru's family and was beaten off.
Fought in the Malwa over horses the Sikh Bidhi Chand had recovered from imperial stables, which had originally been gifts for the Guru.
Painde Khan, once the Guru's own commander, led a Mughal army against him and was killed. The young Tyag Mal fought so well he was renamed Tegh Bahadur.
A skirmish as the Guru withdrew from Kartarpur towards Kiratpur.
The Guru's first battle, aged about twenty-two. Pir Budhu Shah of Sadhaura fought for him with his followers and lost two sons.