237 dams to the imperial treasury. Bordering Barwar-Anjana was the mahal of Bhurwara, which was also heavily forested and not extensively cultivated. It included the later parganas of Haidarabad, Bhur, and Kukra Mailani, although its boundaries were never clearly defined, and it was ruled by the Ahbans. The mahal of Khairigarh also had imprecise boundaries; besides the later pargana of the same name, it included the area that would later become the Nighasan and Palia parganas, as well as the northern half of Dhaurahra. The Ain-i-Akbari calls Khairigarh one of the most important forts in Hindustan, and the landowners in this mahal consisted of various Rajput clans: Bais, Bisen's, and Bachhils, as well as an unknown group called "Kahanah". In the southern part of the present-day district was the mahal of Paila, which was smaller at that point than it would later become; it was ruled by the Ahbans. The mahal of Kheri included the later pargana of Srinagar along with most of Kheri pargana. Kheri itself had a fort made of burnt brick. The remaining part of Kheri pargana was then part of the small mahal of Basara, which consisted of the southwestern corner between the Sarayan and Jamwari rivers. Finally, the later pargana of Kasta formed part of the large mahal of Nimkhar, which was mostly based in present-day Sitapur district. A small part of the current district was included in the sarkar of Bahraich at the time of Akbar. The mahal of Firozabad, ruled by the Tomar Rajputs, probably covered the southern part of the later Dhaurahra pargana in addition to Firozabad. It mustered a "surprisingly large" force of 8,000 infantry and 200 cavalry, and there was a brick fort at its headquarters. From Akbar's time until the end of the 1700s, the history of Lakhimpur Kheri district is essentially the history of the various zamindari dynasties that ruled the area. The greatest of these was the Sayyids of Barwar, who had originally been granted a large estate in Hardoi district by Akbar. Muqtadi Khan, the great-grandson of the original grantee, was "entrusted with the management of Barwar" after the death of the former Bachhil ruler there. He then built a large fort at Barwar, and he greatly expanded his territory during the reign of Aurangzeb before dying in 1683. Some of the Rajput States of the district estd. before Mughal era were Isanagar, Jhandi and Lakhahi.