I38
A TTOCki' TA411SIL
as the Nala, which includes, along with a number of low hills and
much broken country, a considerable area of fairly good level land,
portions of which are irrigated from wells and by cuts from the Haro and
other smaller streams. The population in I9or was r5,550o, compared
with 14i,o63 in 189r. It contains the towns of ATTOCK (population,
2,822), its present head-quarters, HAZRO (9,799), the cantonment of
CA.MPBELLPORE (5,036), the head-quarters of the District; and 91
villages. The land revenue and cesses amounted in 1903-4 to 1-9
lakhs. HASSAN ABDAL, is a place of historical interest.
Attock Town (Atak).-Fort and temporary head-quarters of the
tahsil of the same name in Attock District, Punjab, situated in
33° 53' N. and 72° 15' E., on the North-Western Railway and the
grand trunk road; distant by rail 1,505 miles from Calcutta, 1,541
from Bombay, and 882 from Karachi. Population (I901), 2,822.
The fort rises in three tiers to a commanding height above the Indus,
just below the point where it receives the Kabul river. Opposite it
a whirlpool eddies between two jutting precipices of black slate, known
as Kamalia and Jalalia, from the names of two Roshania heretics, who
were flung from their summits during the reign of Akbar. The
buildings of the town formerly stood within the fort, but have been
removed to a site on one side of it. The fort, which commands the
passage of the Indus, is garrisoned by two companies of garrison
artillery and a detachment of infantry.
Alexander is supposed to have crossed the Indus by a bridge of
boats at Ohind, r6 miles above Attock. The fort was built by Akbar
in 1581, to protect his empire against the inroads of his brother,
Hakim Mirza, governor of Kabul; and he named it Atak-Banaras in
contrast to Katak-Banaras, the fort which lay in the south-east corner
of his empire. Another story goes that Akbar, finding the Indus
impassable, named the fortress Atak, 'the obstacle,' and that when
he effected a crossing he founded Khairabad, ' the abode of safety,' on
the western bank of the river. In 1812 Ranjit Singh surprised the fort,
which was in the possession of the Wazir of Kabul. In the first Sikh
War it was taken by the British, but lost in the second despite a long
and gallant defence by Lieutenant Herbert. It returned to British occu-
pation at the end of the second Sikh War. The road and railway bridge
over the Indus were completed in I883. Attock is administered as a
' notified area.' The income and expenditure of cantonment funds during
the ten years ending I902-3 averaged Rs. 249 and Rs. 216 respectively.
Atur Taluk.-Tdluk of Salem District, Madras, lying between
II° I9' and II° 53 N. and 78° I6' and 780 5x' E., with an area of
841 square miles. The western part is broken by numerous rocks and
hills; but the east forms a wide undulating plain, separated by the
valleys of the Vasishtanadi and Swetanadi rivers from the mountain
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