Beed

Beed, city, central Maharashtra state, western India, on a tributary of the Krishna River near a gap in a range of low hills.

Beed was known earlier as Champavatinagar. Its other name, Bir or Bhir, probably was derived from the Persian bhir (“water”). In its early history it belonged to the Chalukya and Yadava Hindu dynasties. Conquered by the Tughluq Muslim dynasty in the 14th century, it remained part of the Muslim states until 1947.

Beed is known for its leatherwork and its beautiful Kankaleshwar Temple, where a poor Brahman is said to have received 1,000 pots of gold as a reward for his intense devotion to Shiva. The city has several colleges affiliated with Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad.

Beed and its environs lie in the Godavari River basin. The Balaghat Range is the source of many rivers that drain into the Manjra River, a tributary of the Godavari. The Godavari, which lies to the south, is considered sacred by the people of Beed, and its banks are dotted with shrines. The area depends heavily on agriculture and is sparsely populated. A significant number of the region’s inhabitants are landless laborers who make seasonal migrations to the sugar factories of nearby Ahilyanagar. Irrigation projects along the Godavari have been planned to augment the scanty annual rainfall and to strengthen agricultural production, which is dominated by cotton and sorghum (jowar). Pop. (2001) 138,196; (2011) 146,709.