Khandesh
Khandesh is a historical and geographical region located in northwestern Maharashtra, India. It broadly covers the valley of the Tapi River, bounded by the Satpura ranges to the north, the Ajanta hills to the south, and the Western Ghats to the west and southwest. The region includes the present-day districts of Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar, along with the northern parts of present-day Nashik district. The Burhanpur district of Madhya Pradesh also formed an integral part of Khandesh and served as the capital of the Khandesh Sultanate.
The use of the Khandeshi language is prevalent in this region, and the language itself derives its name from the name of the region. This language is sometimes considered as a dialect of Marathi due to its mutual intelligibility with it, and hence has lower numbers in the census due to people opting their language as Marathi instead. This region is famous for banana agriculture and is a leading producer of it.
Territorial and Administrative boundaries
The region of Khandesh occupied a significant place in the historical geography of India. Once a vast and important tract, it extended across portions of present-day Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. During the period of the Farooqui dynasty, Burhanpur served as its capital; in subsequent centuries, the region was incorporated into the Mughal Empire as one of its prominent subahs. At its geographical and cultural core lay the fertile valley of the Tapi River, which sustained its agrarian wealth and political centrality.Under British rule, a major administrative division known as the Khandesh District was constituted within the Bombay Presidency. In 1906, this district was bifurcated into East Khandesh and West Khandesh. Later, in 1998, Nandurbar District was carved out of Dhule, thereby establishing a separate administrative identity. Although historically central to Khandesh, Burhanpur was not incorporated into the British Khandesh District. Instead, it was annexed to the East Nimar district of the Central Provinces and Berar, whose headquarter was at Khandwa.
The territorial boundaries of Khandesh underwent several significant administrative reconfigurations. In 1869, the southern portion of the British Khandesh District—including the present talukas of Kalwan, Satana, Malegaon, Deola, and Nandgaon—was detached and incorporated into the newly constituted Nasik District of the Bombay Presidency. Further adjustments followed in 1950, when eleven villages from Nandgaon taluka were transferred to Aurangabad District of the former Hyderabad State.
After India’s independence, the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, and more decisively, the Bombay Reorganisation Act of 1960, redefined state boundaries and laid the foundation for the creation of Maharashtra. Despite being the historic nucleus of Khandesh, Burhanpur remained within the Central Provinces, and in 2003 it was reconstituted as a separate Burhanpur District following its detachment from Khandwa district.
The reorganisation of 1960 also transferred 87 villages from West Khandesh to the newly formed state of Gujarat. Of these, 23 villages from Nawapur taluka and 2 from Nandurbar taluka were annexed to Songadh taluka of Surat District, now part of Tapi District. Likewise, 37 villages from Akkalkuwa taluka and 25 from Taloda taluka were ceded to Sagbara taluka of Bharuch District, today incorporated into the Narmada District established in 1997.
History
Ancient history
The Markandeya Purana and Jain literature describe Khanadesh region as Abhiradesa. The rule of the Abhiras over this region is not only evident from the epigraphs but from the oral traditions also. A tradition of Nandurbar presents before us an account of an Ahir Raja Nanda, who fought the Turks.Maurya Empire (c. 4th century BCE – 2nd century BCE)
The earliest political authority over the region later known as Khandesh can be attributed to the Maurya Empire. While no direct inscriptions of the Mauryas have been discovered within the boundaries of present-day Khandesh, a strong body of indirect evidence indicates that the region fell under Mauryan control during the reigns of Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka.The presence of the Mauryas in western India is well established through epigraphical and archaeological remains. Notably, the Major Rock Edicts of Ashoka are found at Sopara in today’s Palghar district of Maharashtra and at Girnar in Gujarat. Geographically, Khandesh lies between these two locations, making it highly probable that the region was integrated into the Mauryan provincial administration.
The Mauryas governed their vast empire through a network of provinces administered by royal princes or governors. The western Deccan, including Khandesh, would have been connected to the important trade routes leading from the ports of Sopara and Bharuch towards the Deccan plateau. Khandesh, being a fertile tract along the Tapi river, was strategically positioned on this north–south and east–west communications corridor.
The absence of direct Mauryan inscriptions in Khandesh may be explained by the fact that Ashokan edicts were often placed at sites of pilgrimage, trade, or high political importance. While Sopara functioned as a key port and Girnar as a religious and administrative center, Khandesh perhaps remained more peripheral in terms of inscriptional visibility. Nonetheless, the uniform spread of Mauryan administration across western India makes it historically consistent to consider Khandesh a part of the Mauryan imperial system.
Satavahana dynasty (c. 1st century BCE – 3rd century CE)
After the decline of the Mauryan Empire, political authority in the Deccan, including the region of present-day Khandesh, passed into the hands of the Satavahana dynasty. Unlike the Mauryas, the Satavahanas left behind both inscriptional and numismatic evidence that attest to their presence in western India. The Satavahanas, also known as the Andhras, rose to prominence in the late 1st century BCE and maintained control until the 3rd century CE, exercising authority over a vast territory stretching from the Godavari basin to western Maharashtra and parts of Malwa.The Satavahanas are particularly important for Khandesh because the region lay on a strategic axis connecting the ports of Bharuch and Sopara with the Deccan plateau. Khandesh, situated along the Tapi river, served as a fertile agricultural base and also facilitated trade routes between northern and southern India. Archaeological discoveries of Satavahana coins and pottery in northern Maharashtra further strengthen the claim of their direct rule.
Epigraphical references, including the Nasik cave inscriptions, show that the Satavahanas patronized Buddhist monastic establishments throughout western India. Though Khandesh itself has yielded fewer inscriptions than the coastal and central Deccan areas, it shared in the larger religious and cultural milieu fostered by Satavahana patronage. The flourishing of Buddhist trade guilds and cave complexes at nearby sites such as Ajanta, Nasik, and Junnar demonstrates the integration of Khandesh into the commercial-religious networks of the Satavahana state.
Administratively, the Satavahanas were known for their practice of granting land to Brahmanas and Buddhist monasteries, thereby promoting agrarian expansion. Khandesh’s fertile plains would have been among the areas benefitting from such agrarian growth. The Satavahanas also issued large numbers of lead and copper coins, many of which are found in western Maharashtra, providing further testimony to their economic influence in the region.
By the mid-3rd century CE, the Satavahanas declined, paving the way for the rise of regional powers such as the Abhiras and the Vakatakas in the Deccan. In Khandesh, Satavahana rule left behind a legacy of agrarian development, religious patronage, and integration into long-distance trade networks.
Abhiras (c. 3rd–5th century CE)
Following the decline of the Satavahanas, the region that later came to be called Khandesh appears in early medieval sources as part of Abhiradesa—the land associated with the Abhiras. The Abhiras emerged in western India as a politically significant group during the third and fourth centuries CE and exercised varying degrees of autonomy across parts of the western Deccan and adjacent tracts.Evidence and sources:
- Epigraphic and charter material: Copper-plate grants and later medieval compilations refer to territories called Abhiradesa, and several inscriptions from neighbouring districts identify Abhira chiefs and local land grants, indicating the presence of an organised polity or polities in the Tapi–Girna corridor.
- Numismatic and material traces: Coin finds attributable to Abhira-affiliated local rulers and the circulation of Satavahana and western-Indian coinage in the region attest to a mixed monetary environment in which Abhira chiefs operated.
Modern scholarship distinguishes between several plausible modes of Abhira presence in Khandesh: independent local sovereignty, where Abhira rulers exercised full royal prerogatives; regional lordship or chieftainship, where Abhira elites exercised de facto control while acknowledging suzerainty of a larger neighbouring power; and ethno-social predominance, where pastoral and agrarian Abhira communities provided the demographic and military base without necessarily forming a centralised state. The documentary record supports all three models in differing places and periods, meaning that the Abhira role in Khandesh is best read as heterogeneous rather than uniform.
Administrative and social impact:
The Abhira period in Khandesh is associated with the consolidation of village-level agrarian control, the integration of pastoral communities into settled roles of landholding and military service, and the incorporation of the region into long-distance networks previously organised by the Satavahanas. In place-names and later local traditions the designation Abhiradesa persists, reflecting the strength of Abhira identity in the region’s historical memory.
Historiographical remarks and limits of evidence:
Direct royal inscriptions conclusively proving continuous, centralised Abhira monarchy in Khandesh remain limited. Consequently, historians rely on a combination of copper-plate notices from adjacent districts, numismatic distribution, and textual references to reconstruct Abhira influence. This method is standard practice for early medieval regional histories where local epigraphy is sparse; the resulting reconstruction is therefore evidence-led rather than speculative.