Continued from above....
This is evident in his future terms of negotiation...Babur now in a stronger position assigned sultanpur and jullunder(Jalandhar) to Daulat instead of Lahore.Alam khan lodi was assigned Dipalpur.Thus the struggle for mastery of north india was triggered by an escalation of violence that began for the mastery of the Punjab...Daulat was predictably unhappy with his new assignments and went into hiding with his son Ghazi khan.His other son Dilawar khan would betray and accept sultanpur.
But it is suspect if Babur had any imperial ambitions over delhi immediately after taking the Punjab...He may have nursed ambitions over delhi from the beginning.As time would show alam khan was evicted from dipalpur by Sultanate forces dispatched by Sultan Ibrahim..Alam khan now without a fief once again sought the help of Babur who instructed his begs(officials) in lahore to support him against Ibrahim's forces.He also promised to back him up but he couldnt for other circumstances(problems in balkh if I'm not wrong).The pact between Babur and alam khan entailed alam taking the delhi throne and Babur retaining his holdings in Punjab.Thus the prelude for panipat began with babur hoping to install a friendly monarch at delhi.
Alam khan took daulat's sons and with an army began marching towards delhi.He was approached by the now disaffected Daulat but it seems his assistance was declined since he was no longer on friendly terms with Babur.
They besieged Sultan ibrahim at Delhi...Ibrahim sallied out of delhi and routed them off the field putting an end to all their ambitions.
Upon hearing of alam's failure and daulat switching sides once again,Babur returned to punjab.Upon his arrival Daulat and his forces melted away and along with his son ghazi khan fled to fotress of milwat.Babur laid siege to milwat and daulat finally surrendered and he died en-route to bhera where he was to imprisoned.Thus in less than 3 weeks of crossing the Indus,Babur had become the undisputed master of Punjab.
Over time daulat proved to be an unreliable ally and kept oscillating between aiding and opposing Babur while his sons either opposed or sided with Babur.This explains the inconsistencies of unfolding of events.Daulat may have hidden his opposition and also shifted his loyalties multiple times in between events making it difficult to gather the exact chronology of events described in sources (even on the internet)
It is evident how with passage of time Babur's terms grew tougher and tougher as his military position grew more and more stronger.
Nevertheless Alam khan's failure and daulat's expiry left Babur as the only power capable of taking on Ibrahim.After Alam's failure Babur realised that ibrahim would not let him rule Punjab and that he had no intention whatsoever of ceding it to him.Ibrahim however could not let Babur linger in the punjab because he could use it as a staging point for further expeditions.This undeniably left them both on a collison course where only one would prevail.Had Daulat thrown in his lot with ibrahim much earlier before his surrender at milwat,Babur might have been in a precarious position.
He needed kabul to protect himself from the Uzbeks.Kabul and its surroundings in afghanistan hardly yielded any income and he needed the fertile tracts of the Punjab to sustain himself.To defend his existence in punjab he needed a "Panipat".It may have been that it was at this time that Babur fully decided to make a gamble for delhi itself and expand eastwards.
Thus it was a fortuitous turn of events that unfolded which he took complete advantage of.Not a one dimensional well planned invasion to conquer as most would believe.He was expansionist no doubt but it was not a decision made once on the spot.
It is funny how attempts to escape the Uzbeks and to defend his existence in the punjab ultimately escalated into a conflict for the mastery of delhi and north india itself.The subsequent events at Panipat need no mention.
KrishnaCN
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