Editing Third Battle of Panipat (section)

=== Outflanked ===
[[File:Detail of Sadashiv Rao on horseback from a larger Faizabad-style painting of the Third Battle of Panipat, Mughal, ca.1761–1770.jpg|thumb|[[Sadashivrao Bhau]] wounded in battle ]]
Sadashiv Rao Bhau who had not kept any reserves, seeing his forward lines dwindling, civilians behind and upon seeing Vishwasrao disappear in the midst of the fighting, felt he had no choice but to come down from his elephant and lead the battle.<ref name="KaushikRoy" />

Taking advantage of this, the Afghan soldiers who had been captured by the Marathas earlier during the Siege of Kunjpura revolted. The prisoners unwrapped their green belts and wore them as turbans to impersonate the troops of the [[Durrani Empire]] and began attacking from within. This brought confusion and great consternation to the Maratha soldiers, who thought that the enemy had attacked from the rear. Some Maratha troops in the vanguard, seeing that their general had disappeared from his elephant and the chaos ensuing in the rear, panicked and scattered in disarray towards the rear.<ref name="tss"/>

Abdali had given a part of his army the task of surrounding and killing the Gardis, who were at the leftmost part of the Maratha army. Bhausaheb had ordered Vitthal Vinchurkar (with 1500 cavalry) and Damaji Gaikwad (with 2500 cavalry) to protect the Gardis. However, after seeing the Gardis having no clearing for directing their cannon fire at the enemy troops, they lost their patience and decided to fight the Rohillas themselves. Thus, they broke their position and went all out on the Rohillas. The Rohilla riflemen started accurately firing at the Maratha cavalry, which was equipped only with swords. This gave the Rohillas the opportunity to encircle the Gardis and outflank the Maratha centre while Shah Wali pressed on attacking the front. Thus the Gardis were left defenseless and started falling one by one.<ref name="tss"/>

Vishwasrao had already been killed by a shot to the head. Bhau and the Huzurati royal forces fought till the end, the Maratha leader having three horses shot out from under him. At this stage, the Holkar and Scindia contingents, realising the battle was lost, merged their forces with one contingent breaking from the Maratha right flank and escaped from the opening in the Durrani lines southwards as [[Jankoji Rao Scindia]] lead the other contingent to reinforce the thinning lines of Marathas.<ref name="KaushikRoy" /> The Maratha front lines remained largely intact, with some of their artillery units fighting until sunset. Choosing not to launch a night attack, many Maratha troops escaped that night. Bhau's wife [[Parvatibai]], who was assisting in the administration of the Maratha camp, escaped to Pune with her bodyguard, Janu Bhintada along with [[Nana Fadnavis]] under the protection of Malhar Rao Holkar's contingent. Some 15,000 soldiers managed to reach [[Gwalior]].<ref name="KaushikRoy" />