Akbarpur Aunchha

The name "Akbarpur" is a reference to the Mughal emperor Akbar, who is traditionally credited with founding the old fort here at the highest point. "Auncha" may refer to the elevated ("unch") nature of the site.^[2]: 181

Akbarpur Aunchha is at the southern end of a long khera or archaeological mound, which runs north–south for about half a mile (0.8 km). Around the turn of the 20th century, it was noted that old kankar masonry was built into then-current structures as spolia, and old brick wells and sculpture fragments were also noted. An inscription below a statue at the village's main shrine, the Rikhi Asthan on the northeast, contains the date 334 samvat. If this is a reference to the Bikram Samvat calendar, then this would date the inscription to 277 CE, but which samvat is meant here is unknown.^{[2]: 181–2}

The Rikhi Asthan itself occupies the site of a much older shrine, but its present form dates to a rebuilding in 1873 by Chaudhri Jai Chand, from Bishangarh in Farrukhabad district, who at the time was zamindar of both Akbarpur Aunchha and the neighbouring village of Achalpur. The old shrine was left intact, but it was covered up and the entrance blocked. The shrine hosts a fair annually on the day of Chait nomi sudi (i.e. in March).^[2]: 182

At the turn of the 20th century, Akbarpur Aunchha was noted to have a post office, school teaching in Hindi/Urdu, and a bazar. It hosted a market two days a week, which mainly dealt in grain and tobacco. There were 8 outlying hamlets surrounding the main village site. There was previously a police station here, but by 1910 it had been demoted to an "outpost". As of 1901, the village's population was 2,390. There was also some dhak woodland to the north of the village at that point, near the Rikhi Asthan.^{[2]: 181–2}