KUM 281 The river Naiya traverses the northern part of this pargana, and then flows into the pargana Simrauta. The soil of this pargana is for the most part clay. There are six markets—viz., Arárúganj, Sahjan Pachhim. gáon, Bani, Sambharganj, Gogra, Lálganj. In these markets the principal articles of daily use are sold. Bani only has a cattle market. Salt was manufactured before annexation to tlie value of Rs. 160 annually, and saltpetre is still manufactured in some villages. There is no noteworthy fair or temple in the pargana. The history of the Amethia Clihattris, the principal proprietors in this pargana, is thus related by Mr. Benett :- " The Amethias, afterwards destined to be the most important family in the neighbourhood, were already hovering on the confines of Haidar- garh. "This tribe of Chhattris arc a branch of the Chamar Gaurs, and are said to be the descendants of a pregnant Gaur widow, who, at the extirpation of the Chhattris by the Brahnians, found an asylum in a Chamár's hut. The memory of this humble refuge is kept alive among them by the wor- ship of the rápi or the cobbler's cutting tool. Great numbers of the Chamar Gaurs pow hold villages in the Hardoi district, and it is probable that the Amethias were an offshoot of the same immigration. Tradition discovers them first at Shiupuri and afterwards at the celebrated fortress of Kálinjar. Somewhere about the time of Tamerlane's invasion of Hin- dustan, Raipal Singh left Kálinjar and settled at Amethi in the Lucknow district.
- His descendants say that he was sent by the Delhi emperor to sup-
press a rebellion in Oudh, and that he defeated and slew Balbhadra Sen Bisen, with sixteen thousand of his host. The figures are slightly impro- bable, and my enquiries have failed to bring to light a Bisen rája of that name. Raipál was wounded in the sboulder by a musket shot, and recom- pensed by a kbilat and the title of Rája of Amethi.
- Three or four generations after this, three brothers—Dingur Sáh, Rám
Singh, and Lohang-led their clan from *Amethi to Jagdispur, and came into contact with the Musalmans left at Bhilwal by Ibráhím Shah. The engagement resulted in the defeat of the Shekhs, and the occupation of their villages by the invaders. "There is every reason to suppose that this occurred towards the ond of the fifteenth century, and was part of the general re-assertion of Hindu supremacy in Oudh, consequent on the downfall of the Jaunpur dynasty- a reaction whose central event was the establishment of the Bais king- dom. If the family tradition that Raipál Singh came to Amethi in
- Note.-They were probably expelled from Amethi by the ancestors of the present
taluqdar of Salempur Ibráhímabad, and I am ioclined to belicse that some short tituc elapsed before they ventured to attack the Sliek hs of Bhilwal. There is a tradition which represents that they passed some years in the villages of a Ráe Khire Singh, one of the Sehen Bais with whom they were connected by a arriage.
