Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/171

 PIH 163 " Sayyad seem to have obliterated all traces of the earlier occupants. No ruined shrine is to be seen, only the remains of a huge masonry well. Bari Pihani was deserted when Nizam Murtaza Khan founded the nearer adjacent town of Nizámpur, or Chhoti Piháni. Chhoti Piháni presents an agreeable contrast to the older town. It is altogether clearer, brisker, more populous ; viewed from the outside it seems to be buried in trees. The soil is good; the water near the surface. The western gateway, with its huge shafts of red sandstone, the bastions of the high enclosing wall, brick-faced, with blocks of kankar. The remains of Murtaza Khan's fort show many a scene of picturesque ruin. But the gem of the whole place is the grand old mosque and tomb of Sadr Jahan and Badr Jahan in Bari Pihani. It is a building of much beauty. A double dome, poised on red sand- stone pillars, rises from a pavement of brick, cased with carved slab of stone, and shaded by tamarinds of enormous girth. Lightness, symmetry, and grace, delicate colour, and rich but not florid ornamentation, are its characteristics. In the nawabi, Pihani was the Damascus of Oudh, noted for the temper of its sword blades. But these and its woven turbans (dastár) are things of the past. PIHANI PINDARWA Pargana,Tahsil SHAHABAD-District HARDOI.- This pargana is bounded on the north by the district of Kheri, on the east by Kheri and Sitapur, on the west by Pargana Alamnagar and Mansur- nagar, and on the south by Gopamau and Mansurnagar. Its area is 45,544 acres, or 71 square miles, divided as follows: Cultivated ... 27,999 acres Irrigated 9.383 Unirrigated 18,066 Culturable 12,741 Unculturable 33 27 40 5,404 Total 45,544 406 The soil is loam; the river Gumti passes through the pargana. There are four roads, viz. : From Pihảni to Shahabad, from Piháni to Kulhábar Ghát, from Pibáni to Hardoi, and from Piháni to Aurangabad. Pibáni and Pindarwa are the principal villages. The Government revenue is Rs. 40,861. The population amounts to 36,979, and the number of houses is 6,607. There are 12 schools within the pargana; the town of Piháni has post and registry offices, and a police station. Formerly Pihani was not a pargana, but was merely known by the name of “ Jágír of Sádát." Since the Sayyads of Pihani lost their jágírs. the land revenue of Piháni itself was collected along with that of pargana Pindarwa. In the time of Hakím Mehndi, Chakladar of Munandi (1819-1820), some of the villages of Pindarwa pargana were amalgary ated