Battle of Sonipat
1709 battle

The Battle of Sonipat was fought between Sikhs and the Mughal Empire in 1709. It was the first significant battle during Banda Singh Bahadur's rebellion.
Prelude
In 1708, Banda Singh Bahadur became the Jathedar of the Khalsa Army and he was sent to Punjab by Guru Gobind Singh to fight against the Mughal Empire.
Battle
Khanda, Sonipat village (Sehri Khanda) witnessed the Battle of Sonipat against the Mughals and won the battle under the military leadership of Banda Singh Bahadur. He first camped at Khanda village, with an army of 500, and then marched to Sonipat, attacked the town, and threw an open challenge to the Mughal Empire. The Mughal Faujdar of Sonipat was utterly unprepared and he was routed in the battle and was defeated.
Pillage of Sonipat
The Sikhs then plundered the Provincial Mughal Treasury and villages at Sonipat.
Aftermath
After the Sonipat conquest, Banda Singh Bahadur reached Samana, Punjab and attacked the town. The Sikhs won the battle against the Mughals in Samana.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as 1709 battle. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21715226. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1709 and 1708.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Sonipat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.