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This is a list of the battles fought by the Sikh Empire (1799 - 1849) established by Maharaja Ranjit Singh against various adversaries like the Durrani Empire of Afghanistan and the British East India Company. The Sikhs very commonly fought battles in which they had much less force than their foes. However, they had a pretty amazing success rate. ==Background== The Sikhs first raised their weapons against the oppressive Mughal Empire under Guru Hargobind. The tenth and the last Guru, Guru Gobind Singh organized Sikhs into a military sect called Khalsa (means "pure"), in 1699, against the atrocities of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Before his death in 1708, he sent Banda Bahadur to lead the Sikhs of Punjab. Banda Bahadur through his outstanding leadership skills weakened the Mughal grasp over the eastern Punjab. But he was later captured and beheaded in Delhi in 1716, during the reign of Farrukhsiyar. Thereafter, Sikhs became leaderless and were divided into Misls. Although their martial skills were enormous, their political disunity made them vulnerable to foreign attacks. In 1738, Nadir Shah of Iran, attacked India , looted Delhi and Mughals were never able to recover their power in Punjab. Later, Punjab was subject to constant invasions of Ahmad Shah Durrani of Afghanistan. During every invasion of Abdali, Sikhs were persecuted ruthlessly. The holy shrine of Har Mandir was also razed to the ground. His invasion of 1757 brought the Marathas into conflict. Marathas briefly captured Punjab from the Durranis. But the phase between 1757 and 1761 was a period of political turmoil for Punjab. The Afghan-Martha war culminated into the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, where Marathas were decisively defeated. Although Abdali had a complete victory to his credit, he suffered heavily during the war losing thousands of trained troops. Also, he had to face the Central Asian emirate of Bukhara in the north of Afghanistan. So, the Panipat war ended the Mughal question in Punjab forever, vanquished Marathas from Punjab and reduced Abdali's power to control the region. Sikhs took full advantage of the political void in Punjab and soon captured Lahore. Abdali tried many times to recover Lahore but ultimately failed. After his final invasion of Punjab in 1767, he abandoned Lahore to be captured by the Sikhs. For more than three decades, Sikhs consolidated their power in the region. The period was relatively peaceful. But the decisive moment came in 1790, when Ranjit Singh of Sukerchakia misl became misldar. He started uniting misls and finally took Lahore in 1799. His coronation on 12 April, 1801 marked the beginning of the Sikh Empire, which went on to conquer the whole Punjab, Kashmir, Kangra and Peshawar. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battles involving the Sikh Empire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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