Beed (Marathi pronunciation: [biːɖ]) is a city and headquarters of eponymous Beed district of Maharashtra state in India.
History
Beed is a historical city of possibly medieval origin. Its early history is obscure. Historians speculate, based on archaeological remains, that the city might have been founded by the Yadava rulers (1173–1317) of Devagiri (Daulatabad). Beed was later governed by the Nizams during the period of British India. The Annexation of Hyderabad Operation Polo, the code name of the Hyderabad "Police Action", was a military operation in September 1948 in which the Indian Armed Forces invaded the State of Hyderabad and overthrew its Nizam, annexing the state into India. Beed remained in annexed Hyderabad state until 1956 when it was included in Bombay Presidency. On 1 May 1960 Maharashtra state was created on a linguistic basis, and Marathi Hindu & Muslim dominated Beed district became part of Maharashtra.
Foundation and name
The early history of Beed is unknown and there are contradictions in the historical accounts concerning its foundation and early history. According to legend, Beed was an inhabited place in the period of Pandavas and Kurus as Durgavati. Its name was subsequently changed to Balni. Champavati, who was sister of Vikramaditya, after captured and renamed it as Champavatinagar. After that the city fell to Chalukya, Rashtrkuta and Yadava dynasties before falling to Muslim rule. However, some scholars say that it was possibly founded by the Yadava rulers of Devagiri (Daulatabad).
Tārīkh-e-Bīr (history of Beed) mentions that Muhammad bin Tughluq named it Bir (Arabic بئر meaning 'well') after building a fort and several wells in and around the city. Ground water was abundant in the city and when wells were built, water was found just several feet down. Until recent times, wells were abundant in the city. They became less important due to a modern system of water supply, hence subsequently most of them were filled. It is unclear as to how the present name Beed came into use. There are at least two different traditions. The first tradition says that since the district is situated at the foot of Balaghat Range as if it is in a hole, it was named as Bil (बील Marathi for hole) which in course of time corrupted to Bid. According to the second tradition a Yavana (यवण) ruler of ancient India named it Bhir (Persian ٻھېڔ for water) after finding water at a very low depth It is quite possible that Muhammad bin Tughluq may have been referred to in this tradition as Yavana ruler. Muslims ruled the Deccan for centuries and almost all Muslim rulers had Persian as their court language. It seems that Arabic word 'Bir' was eventually pronounced 'Bhir' in the Indian accent and the people mistakenly took this Arabic word as Persian since the court language of the rulers was Persian. Until recent times after independence, the city was called 'Bir' and 'Bhir' in the official documents.
In mythology
thumb|A plaque in Persian (فارسى) on Bab-uz-zafar (Kotwali gate) states the re-construction of eastern protection wall by Amir Nawaz Jang in 1835.
According to legend, when Ravana, demon king of Lanka (Sri Lanka), abducted Sita (wife of Hindu deity Rama) and was taking her to Lanka, Jatayu (eagle) tried to stop him. Ravana cut its wings and wounded Jatayu fell on the ground. When Rama reached there in search of his beloved wife, Jatayu told him the whole story and died. The place where he died is said to be in Beed city and Jatashankar temple is standing at the place, which is; according to scholars, possibly built by Yadavas of Devagiri. The tomb of Tughluq's tooth is in about to collapse condition on a hill near the village Karjani about 13 km south of the city. Junna Khan one of the governors of Tughluq empire is said to have resided in Beed for quite some time and introduced many reforms for the welfare of the ruled. He diverted the course of Bensura from west to east by constructing a protection wall around the city. Before his time there was no such protection for the city and it was situated on the eastern bank of the river. After that the population was largely shifted to the western part.
Nizams were allies of the British Empire in India. During the countrywide movement for independence, in 19th and 20th centuries they tried to suppress the feelings of nationalism which were spreading due to nationwide efforts of the freedom fighters. Nationalists in the state of Hyderabad did not like Nizam's friendship with the British Empire. Beed was the place in Marathwada region where freedom struggle first started in 1818.
In 1818 during the rule of Nizam Sikandar Jah (1803–29) first rebel broke out in Beed under the leadership of Dharmaji 'Pratap Rao' Garje along with the Peshwa Bajirao II. Nizam sent the Risala of Navab Murtaza Yar Jang under the command of British Lieutenant John Sutherland. The rebel leader and his brother were captured and a long run rebellion movement in Beed came to an end.
1858 to Present
Another rebellion broke in 1858 but all the rebels were captured. After this many small incidents of defiance happened against British rule but all were suppressed by force. A major rebel broke under the leadership of Baba Saheb alias Rao Sahab Deshpande in 1898. The important leaders of this movement were Brahmins of Beed and the Deshastha Brahmin officials in police and judiciary also supported the movement. . But after a short fight the rebels were captured and the movement came to an end. But the feelings of defiance could not be suppressed and different movements under the leadership of Swami Ramanand Teerth continued in Marathwada and the state. After independence, Mir Osman Ali Khan was reluctant to join India. Finally, on 12 September 1948 a military action Operation Polo was launched and the state was easily captured within six days as Nizam's army resisted little. Although Operation Polo caused relatively few casualties, the following communal carnage was all the more terrible. Beed was one of the eight worst hit districts in the state. After calm down, a team visited the town on behalf of Indian government and sent a report to the centre. According to official, Sundarlal Report, 27,000–40,000 Muslims were killed throughout the state. Horrible crimes of abduction and rape of Muslim women's & girls, loot, arson, desecration of masjids, forcible conversions and seizure of houses and lands were mentioned in the report. Some unofficial reports, however, puts the figure of killings up to 50,000 and some even to a few hundred thousand.
A plebiscite was held shortly after the military action in which the population voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining India. Many Muslims during and after 1948 migrated to Pakistan. The city has witnessed communal strife several times in modern India. In 1949 Bendsura Project was launched to provide drinking and irrigation water supply to the city and nearby villages. The project was completed in 1956. In 1952, Beed Nagar Pālika (Municipal Council) was established under the undivided Hyderabad State. In 1962, a year after the creation of Maharashtra State, Beed District Council (krushna temple) came into being after dissolving all the local bodies. At some places in the city, the river is narrow and looks like a stream. The river has slop due to undulating terrain which contributes to violent floods when it rains heavy. Floods have repeatedly caused substantial loss of property and life in the history of the city, most recently on 23 July 1989 when a massive flooding of three habitations in the city caused a number of dead or missing and property losses of millions of rupees. Beed falls under Seismic Hazard Zone-III in India according to the new seismic hazard map updated in 2000 by the of Indian Standards. The city was under Zone-I prior to this update.
Beed is 400 km from Mumbai.
Climate
thumb|The Bensura River(Bendsura). It is cleaned of debris and garbage before a monsoon to facilitate the flow of flooding water. Photographed in the monsoon season.
The city has Semi-arid, hot and dry climate consisting mainly of three seasons. Summers are long, ranging almost five months from mid February to June. Temperatures in summer fall between 31 °C (87.8 °F) – 40 °C (104 °F) (1997 average). However, it may reach higher than 40 °C in searching summer. May is the hottest month of a year with an average day temperature of 42 °C (107.6 °F). Winters are short with temperatures ranging within 12 °C (53.6 °F) – 20 °C (68 °F). December is the coldest month in a year. Occasionally, temperature may fall as low as 3 °C (37.4 °F) or 4 °C (39.2 °F) due to northern cold waves. Relative humidity in winter is the lowest and December is the driest month in a year with the relative humidity as low as 30%.
Rains are scarce and occur only during the Monsoon from mid June to September. Annual average rainfall is 66.6 cm (26.22 inches). Average number of rainy days in a year is 41. September gets the maximum rainfall in a year while July has the maximum rainy days. Highest rainfall recorded in 24 hours (19.18 cm) occurred on 17 August 1887.
Climate of Beed can be compared with that of Pune city's climate.
Beed receives low rainfall because it is located in rain shadow area.
Demographics
At the time of the 2011 census, Beed Municipal Council has a population of 146,709. Males are 75,566 and females 71,143, for a sex ratio of 941 females per 1000 males. 13.60% of the population is under 6 years of age, and the child sex ratio is 854. Beed has a literacy rate of 89.34%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 9.51% and 0.90% of the population respectively.
Death rate is 3 which is lower than the national average of 8.2. Infant mortality rate is 71 per thousand live births which is much higher than the national average of 54.6 deaths for thousand live births. Maternal mortality rate however, is 1 which is extremely lower than the national average of 540.
Beed district has got the lowest sex ratio in Maharashtra State. Beed has the lowest male-female sex ratio in the age group of 0–6 years (801 as against 1000 male children) as per the 2011 census. Maharashtra's sex ratio in the age group of 0–6 years is 883 girls as against 1000 boys.