Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/388

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BHA TKULI—BHA TTIANA.

378 both

According

failed.

Hamilton (1690-1720), the remains Brahman temples were still to be

to Captain

many

of a large city and

Jain and

seen in the beginning of the i8th century.

— Town

Bhatkuli. Amrhoti town.

Amraoti

in

Berdr;

District,

Population (1881) 2508. Town and fort Bhatnair {Bhatner).

on the north of Bikaner (Bickaneer) of the Ghagar river, now dried up.

State,

10

miles

Hanumdngarh

in

R^jputdna, on the

from

District, left

bank

Lat. 29° 34' 55" n., long. 74° 20'

Captain Powlett, in his Gazetteer of the Bikaner State, says fort has attained historical celebrity from its position on the direct route of invasion from Central Asia to India. I am informed 45" ‘

E.

The Bhatnair

by Mr. Oliver,

late

Deputy Commissioner of

Sirsa, that Bhatnair,

Abor,

Bhatindi, and Sirsa, situated at the angles of a nearly square figure, with a side about 50 miles long, had each a fort on the same plan and of the

same dimensions, and thus formed a “quadrilateral”

in the path

The Tdrikh-i-Hind speaks of Bhatnair having been taken by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1001 and Tod says that it was attacked by Timur. It seems probable that Timur left a Tartar Chagitai noble in charge, who was expelled by Bhattis from Marot and Phulra; but whether the place took its name originally from them, or from one Raja Bharat, is much disputed. General Cunningham states that Bhatnair was taken by Khetsi Kondhalat in 1527 A.D. from Sada Chayal Rajput, of which clan no mention is made by Tod. In 1549, Mirza Kamran, brother of Humdyun, took the of any invader from the north-west.’

by

on which occasion Khetsi, with 5000 Rajputs, was slain, subsequently defeated by Rao Jetsa of Bikaner (Bickaneer). Firoz Chayal had meanwhile recovered the fort, and the Rdo therefore sent his son, Thakur Si, to retake it. This was done by surprise and sudden assault. In Samvat 1816 or 1817, the fort was fort

assault,

although

Kamran was

taken by Hassan

Muhammad,

In Samvat 1861,

it

a Bhatti leader, but was again retaken. was beleaguered by a Bikaner (Bickaneer) force; and after a close investment, lasting more than five months, the place was taken. In 1800 A.D., it was attacked by the adventurer George Thomas, to whom it capitulated after the ramparts had been

breached.

He

did not hold

to the State of Bikaner.

it

long, however,

Bhatnair,

now

and it eventually reverted Hanumangarh, is about

called

It is the head-quarters of the tahsUddr of 150 miles from Bikaner. the District, which comprises about no villages.

Bhatpur.

—Village

in

Hardoi

District,

Oudh

on the

right

bank

of the Gumti, 20 miles east-north-east of Sandila, and 6 south of Bari.

Population (1881) 2308, chiefly of the Bais caste. Bhattiana. Tract of country in the Punjab, now included in Sirsa District. It derives its name from the Bhattis, a wild Rajput clan,

who held

the country lying between Haridna, Bikaner,

and Bahdwalpur.