We report a Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) search for HI 21cm emission from a large sample of star-forming galaxies at $z approx 1.18 - 1.34$, lying in sub-fields of the DEEP2 Redshift Survey. The search was carried out by co-adding (stacking) the HI 21cm emission spectra of 857 galaxies, after shifting each galaxys HI 21cm spectrum to its rest frame. We obtain the $3sigma$ upper limit S$_{rm{HI}} < 2.5 mu$Jy on the average HI 21cm flux density of the 857 galaxies, at a velocity resolution of $approx 315$ km s$^{-1}$. This yields the $3sigma$ constraint M$_{rm{HI}} < 2.1 times 10^{10} times left[Delta {rm V}/315 rm{km/s} right]^{1/2} textrm{M}_odot$ on the average HI mass of the 857 stacked galaxies, the first direct constraint on the atomic gas mass of galaxies at $z > 1$. The implied limit on the average atomic gas mass fraction (relative to stars) is ${rm M}_{rm GAS}/{rm M}_* < 0.5$, comparable to the cold molecular gas mass fraction in similar star-forming galaxies at these redshifts. We find that the cosmological mass density of neutral atomic gas in massive star-forming galaxies at $z approx 1.3$ is $Omega_{rm GAS} < 3.7 times 10^{-4}$, significantly lower than $Omega_{rm GAS}$ estimates in both galaxies in the local Universe and damped Lyman-$alpha$ absorbers at $z geq 2.2$. Massive blue star-forming galaxies thus do not appear to dominate the neutral atomic gas content of the Universe at $z approx 1.3$.
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