Hardoi is a village in Maharajganj block of

Rae Bareli district Raebareli district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. The city of Raebareli is the district headquarters. This district is a part of Lucknow Division in Uttar Pradesh state. The total area of Raebareli district is 3,371 S ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Located on the road from Maharajganj to

Bachhrawan Bachhrawan is a town and nagar panchayat in Raebareli district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the seat of a community development block. It is located on the main Raebareli-Lucknow road, at the intersection with roads leading to Mah ...

, Hardoi historically served as the seat of a pargana and has a now-ruined fort built in the early 1400s under the

Jaunpur Sultanate The Jaunpur Sultanate ( fa, ) was an independent Islamic state in northern India between 1394 and 1479, ruled by the Sharqi dynasty. It was founded in 1394 by Khwajah-i-Jahan Malik Sarwar, a former wazir of Sultan Nasiruddin Muhammad Shah IV ...

. As of 2011, its population is 2,308, in 415 households.

History

Hardoi was supposedly founded by and named after a

Bhar The Bhar are a caste in India. History Influenced by the Arya Samaj movement, as were members of other castes, Baijnath Prasad Adhyapak published ''Rajbhar Jati ka Itihas'' in 1940. This book attempted to prove that the Rajbhar were former ...

named Hardeo. The Bhars were the original rulers of the region and are said to have successfully repelled an invasion by the Muslim folk hero Ghazi Sayyid Salar Masud in the 11th century. Agha Shahid, an attendant of Malik Taj-ud-Din of

, arrived to reinforce Salar Masud's forces but was killed in battle and is buried here. An old tradition connected with Agha Shahid's tomb holds that if someone disputes the authenticity of a legal document, then its holder places it on the tomb and the challenger tries to tear it off. According to legend, if the document is genuine, then the challenger's thumb will tear off instead of the paper. The Bhars of Hardoi were subjugated in the early 15th century by Ibrahim Shah Sharqi of the

. Ibrahim Shah had a mud fort (now in ruins) built here and granted the place to a follower of his named Sayyid Jalal-ud-Din. Later, at the end of the 16th century, Hardoi was listed in the Ain-i-Akbari as a ''mahal'' of the sarkar of

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

. Its proprietors were listed as

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...

s, it was assessed at a value of 359,748

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

s, and it supplied a force of 300 infantry to the Mughal army. The 1901 census recorded Hardoi as having a population of 1,378 people, all of whom were Hindu and most of whom were

Kurmi Kurmi is traditionally a non-elite tiller caste in the lower Gangetic plain of India, especially southern regions of Awadh, eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar. The Kurmis came to be known for their exceptional work ethic, superior til ...

s. The village was held by Kurmi tenants and it had 15 masonry houses, with the rest being built from mud. The 1961 census recorded Hardoi as comprising 2 hamlets, with a total population of 1,311 people (680 male and 631 female), in 355 households and 333 physical houses. The area of the village was given as 1,287 acres. At that point, it had a post office, 2

grain mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...

s, 3 small manufacturers of clothing, and 2 small establishments involved in stone dressing, stone crushing, and/or making structural stone goods. The 1981 census recorded Hardoi as having a population of 1,640 people, in 339 households, and having an area of 526.51

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

References

{{Raebareli district Villages in Raebareli district