Skirmish at Pipli

The Skirmish at Pipli (Danish; Træfningen ved Pipli) or more formally the Destruction of the Danish factory at Pipli, was one of the two recorded land confrontations between the Danish East India Company and the Mughal Empire during the Dano-Mughal War. The Skirmish was a Mughal punitive expidition in retalition for the Danish arrest of a Persian merchant. The Skirmish ended in a Mughal victory, and the Danish factory in Pipli was destroyed and burned down.

Background
During the regime of Roland Crappé (admin. 1621–1636) the Danish East India Company would seek to establish a commercial presence in Bengal. Despite initial setbacks the company would establish itself at Pipli and Balasore in 1626. The factory at Pipli was run by merchant Poul Nielsen.

Punitive expedition
In 1640 the local governor of Pipli, Mirza Mumin had increased the tax rate, making it difficult for the company to pay. Besides this the Danes found it increasingly hard to collect the owed money from merchants. This was particularly true in for their debt from a particular Persian merchant, who, in spite of former requests, refused to pay his debts. The Danes in response decided to imprison him in his own house. However, the merchant escaped, so Poul Nielsen sent armed men around the town to locate him. When this failed, they instead took his slave girl and some of his goods into custody at the Danish trade station.

Viewing this as a breach of sovereignty, the Mughal government sent a force of 300 men of the Great Mogul's troops. In the following action, the Danish trade station was taken and burnt to the ground. All of the company's goods in the place were impounded and many Danes were subsequently taken as prisoner and sent to another town.

Aftermath
After some time, Nielsen and some of his men managed to escape and made it down to Danish Tranquebar. However, the factories at Pipli and Balasore were abandoned by the company in 1643, and yet only in 1676 the factory at Balasore was reestablished.

This would be one of several hostile instances between the Mughal Empire and the Danish East India Company that would culminate in the Dano-Mughal War, after the Loss of the St. Jacob in 1642.