Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/251

 КНЕ 243 derived from the affix to Barwar, this pargana is known in the Mughal revenue records as Barwar Anjána, the unknown Barwar. The history of the Barwar Sayyads, who displaced the Báchhils from the pre-eminence in Western Kheri, will be deferred for the present. We must follow the for- tunes of the Bachhils. In Shah Jahán's reign a Bachhil chief held possession of Barwar par- gana and also of Kamp Dhaurahra, which lies along both banks of the Chauka, and includes the present parganas of Dhaurahra, Nighásan, and Bhár. The emperor Shah Jahán sent the Báchhil leader to reduce some rebels in Karra Mánikpur. He defeated them, and returning rapidly to Delhi entered the presence with the blood stains of battle yet upon his clothes. The courtiers were shocked, but Shah Jahan addressed him with the title "Beta Chhípi Khan," which means "my son, you gore-besprinkled chief." The Bachhil retained his authority for some time, but his dominions, how- ever extensive, must have been mostly a wilderness. His fort at Kámp in pargana Bhúr, whose brick walls still remain on a bluff overlooking the Chauka, was not much larger than the houses of many a village owner. The site was well chosen, the ground is high: it is defended in front by the river, across which extended the forests of Khairigarh to the base of the hills. Behind it still spreads a vast forest from the Chauka to the Kathna. This would protect Chhipi Khan from the assaults of the Governor of Khairabad in which province Barwar, the unknown, was supposed to be situated ; but the whole geography of the locality was but dimly defined. This forest is still one of the most dense, lonely, and malarious in India; for many miles the traveller on an elephant pursues a narrow path through thick sál coppice and timber; here and there an open glade is met with ; but the first large bare plain is met with under the walls of Kámp. Here a few aged mango trees crown the high bank of the river, several old wells, the ruins of a temple, lastly the fort itself, buried in dense under- growth and over-shaded by lofty pípal trees, occupy the space under the forest. The high ground then sinks precipitously beneath; the reaches bordering the river are covered with tamarisk for a breadth of several miles; but in tbe rains the Chauka's swollen current fills the whole channel up to the foot of the works, with a volume of water three miles broad. Beyond are the forests of Khairigarh, and above them the four ranges of the Himalayas, the last, covered with perpetual snow, rise tier above tier to the north. It is not exactly clear what Chhípi Khan's domain included, because the Sayyads of Piháni, who will presently be again referred to, must almost certainly have come in collision with him and probably driven him to Kamp. Here he was besieged by the Chauhán Cnief Chitrgupt, who had come from Rájputána, and under the Emperor Alamgir's orders attacked Chbípi Khán, who had become turbulent. The royal forces took ground between the fort and the river, and blockaded not only the fort but also a redoubt a mile to the west, which was defended with masculine resolution by a dancing girl, Chhípi Khán's mistress. She collected stores, enabled her lover to hold out by secretly sending in supplies for the garrison main- taining her own possession and aiding him. At last after eighteen months' blockade, the imperial general managed to run a mine from the low