Yet the central Asians, on their part, considered the Indus region as a part of central Asia. The ‘international boundary’ was always deemed to be the Sutlej. Thus, too, the significance of Panipat. Even if Peshawar or Lahore resisted, the central Asian invaders considered the taking of these cities as the reconquest of their own outposts. India was to be won with the conquest of Delhi, the city commanding the Gangetic region. The plains of Panipat were at Delhi’s doorstep. They were the great historical watershed.
