Khandeshi

The Khandeshi are the people of the Khandesh region, the Tapti River valley in north-western Maharashtra centred on Asirgarh and Burhanpur. Their Indo-Aryan tongue is also called Ahirani after the Ahir herders; the region was known as Abhiradesa in early literature, and the language is written in Devanagari.

In 1295 Ala-ud-din Khalji of Delhi took Khandesh from its Chauhan lord, and in the late fourteenth century Malik Raja founded the independent Farooqui sultanate. Akbar's armies overran the region in 1599, making Burhanpur the seat of a Mughal subah as cotton, indigo and cloth trade brought prosperity. Maratha raids began in 1670, the Peshwa seized Asirgarh in 1760, and in 1818 Khandesh passed to British rule.