Battle of Mudki

Battle context

The Battle of Mudki on 18 December 1845 was the opening engagement of the First Anglo-Sikh War, pitting British East India Company forces against a portion of the Sikh Khalsa Army. Though the British prevailed, the cost was steep — British casualties ranged from 215 to 657 — indicating that the Khalsa presented a formidable opponent despite being engaged with only part of its strength. The result established early British momentum in the war but at a price that signaled the difficulty of the campaign ahead. With roughly equal forces on each side, around 10,000 to 11,000 men, the engagement demonstrated that the Sikh Empire's army could not be dismissed, setting the operational tone for the engagements that followed in the weeks before the war's conclusion in early 1846.