Akola () is a municipal corporation and the third largest city in Vidarbha after Nagpur and Amravati and tenth largest city in Maharashtra. is located about east of the state capital, Mumbai, and west of the second capital, Nagpur. Akola is the administrative headquarters of the Akola district located in the Amravati division, and is governed by the Akola Municipal Corporation. Akola is located north-central of Maharashtra state, western India, on the banks of the Morna River. Although it is not considered a common tourist destination, Akola is an important city due to its history, culture, politics, and agriculture. It also has a prominent road and rail junction in the Tapti River valley that functions as a commercial trading center. Akola is an important educational center with several colleges affiliated with the Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University. The city is developing into a market center. The primary language spoken by the people of Akola is Marathi. History Early medieval history (Classical) Akola is mentioned to be a part of Berar province and the legendary kingdom of Vidarbha in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. Berar also formed part of the Mauryan Empire during the reign of Ashoka (272 to 231 BCE), before being ruled by the Satavahana dynasty (2nd century BCE – 2nd century CE), the Vakataka dynasty (3rd to 6th centuries), the Chalukya dynasty (6th to 8th centuries), the Rashtrakuta dynasty (8th to 10th centuries), the Chalukya dynasty (10th to 12th centuries), and the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri (late 12th to early 14th centuries). Late medieval history A period of Muslim rule began when Alauddin Khalji, Sultan of Delhi, conquered the region in the early 14th century. The region was part of the Bahmani Sultanate, which broke away from the Delhi Sultanate in the middle of the 14th century. The Bahmani Sultanate itself broke up into smaller sultanates at the end of the 15th century, and in 1572 Berar became part of the Nizam Shahi sultanate, based at Ahmednagar. The Nizam Shahis ceded Berar to the Mughal Empire in 1595, and the Mughals ruled the Berar province during the 17th century. The Akola fort was heavily fortified during the Mughal king Aurangzeb's rule. As Mughal rule started to unravel at the start of the 18th century, Asif Jah I, Nizam of Hyderabad seized the southern provinces of the empire (including Berar) in 1724 to form an independent state. Maratha Empire The