Akola

Akola stands on the Morna River in Vidarbha, in the part of Maharashtra historically associated with Berar. The river runs through the centre of the city, while surrounding forts mark a landscape repeatedly divided among competing rulers. Akola's location near the Tapti valley made it an important commercial and agricultural hub, about 250 kilometres west of Nagpur, on routes linking the northern Deccan with central India. The political record changes sharply over several centuries.

Alauddin Khalji conquered the region for Delhi in the early fourteenth century. It then passed to the Bahmani Sultanate, which had broken from Delhi, and the Nizam Shahi rulers of Ahmadnagar received Berar in 1572. They ceded it to the Mughals in 1595. During Aurangzeb's reign, the Akola fort was heavily strengthened, showing the town's value within the imperial province. When Mughal power weakened, Asif Jah I seized the southern provinces, including Berar, in 1724 and formed an independent state at Hyderabad.

Maratha campaigns later entered the struggle for the region, and the Battle of Argaon was fought near Akola in 1803 during the Second Anglo-Maratha War. The Morna and the surrounding farmland remained the stable foundation beneath these changing regimes.