Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/158

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ATW

80

Gumti the surface rises again, and in the south-west comer almost assumes the form of sand-hills for a mile or two thence going northwards along the Gumti, the level gets lower and the soil firmer very gradually. The two pargaaas form the two halves of a parallelogram running north and south between the two rivers, whose highest elevation and poorest soil is at the south-west corner, whose best land is in the extreme northern belt, and whose level sinks gradually from south-west to north-east the highest part is about 530 feet above the sea.



The

entire area of

forests, is

Atwa

Atwa

64 square miles



Piparia, including the

Magdapur

that of

is

Government grants and

56 square miles.

Piparia formed part of pargana Barwar and of the great estate given to Sadr Jahan by Akbar. (See History of Pargana Barwar).

History.

In 1190 Fasli the raja of Muhamdi was taken prisoner, the estate Avas then broken up, and engagements were taken from the old zamindari body consisting of Brahmans and Bachhil Chhattris. The latter are descendants of the famous Chhipi Khan, whose history is' related in that of Barwar. The Bachhil Chhattris are said to have had 282 villages on each side of the Gumti, and to have held Barwar, K^mp, and Gola. They were much reduced however, a number of them managed to get engagement for their among them was the father villages on the break up of the Muhamdi raj of Bhagwant Singh, the famous rebel. He was-permitted to engage for both the parganas, but in 1836, owing to some quarrel with the officials, he was deprived of part of the estate and commenced a life of dacoity. He had a fort at Atwa near the ri-ver Kathna, in dense jungle, which extended then and now down the river to Nimkhar and upwards to the Tarai while across the Kathna stretched the Kukra Mailani forests which reach the lower range of the Himalayas.

On

a

Bhagwant Singh and thence creeping down along the river in the shelter of he used to emerge at night and plunder villages as far south as

little

hillock in this spur of the great jungle

settled himself

the

forest,

Sandila, in Hardoi.

Sleeman

describes, as follows,

what happened on one occasion



Bhagwant Singh, the last Bachhil Rajput, who held the estate of Atwa had been -for some time against his sovereign; he had committed many murders and robberies, and lifted many herds of cattle within the bordering district of Shahjahanpur he had given shelter in his own estate to a good many atrocious criminals from that and others of the bordering "

Piparia,



districts.

"He had, too, aided and screened many gangs of Badhiks. In 1841A.D., the Resident, Colonel Low, directed every possible effort to be made for the arrest of this formidable offender, and Captain Hollings, the second in command of the 2nd Battalion of Oudh Local Infantry, sent intelligencers out to trace him. They ascertained that he had with a few followers taken up a position two hundred yards to the north of the village of Ahrori, pargana Gopamau, in a jungle in the Bangar pargana, about twenty-eight