Chopan

Bareilly lies in the upper Ganges plain, roughly 70 km north of the river and within sight of the outer foothills of the Central Himalaya. It is an important railway and transportation hub, about half-way between Delhi and Lucknow, well connected to most of the major cities in India by rail, and the western part of Nepal by road. According to tradition the city was founded in 1537 by two brothers, Bans Deo and Barel Deo. They built a fort and named it Jagatpur, after their father, at that time the governor of the region. The term is still used to refer to a neighborhood which is now part of the old city. A small town developed around the fort. During the Moghul period Mirzai Mashid and Jama Mashid were built along with a new fort. After Aurangzeb's death in 1707, Afghan clans, known as Rohillas, consolidated their positions in the area and then after the region became known as Rohilkhand. In 1774 the region fell into the hands of the nawab of Awad.