Bidar ( ) is a city and the headquarters of the Bidar district in Karnataka state of India. Bidar is a prominent place on the archaeological map of India. It is well known for architectural, historical religious and rich heritage sites. Picturesquely perched on the Deccan Plateau, the Bidar fort (Bidar Kote) is more than 500 years old and still standing strong. According to the book "Bidar Heritage" published by the state Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage, of the 61 monuments listed by the department, about 30 are tombs located in and around Bidar city., hence its nickname, "City of Whispering Monuments". The heritage sites in and around Bidar have become the major attraction for film shooting in recent years, with Bollywood making visits apart from Kannada film industry.
Bidar is home for the second biggest Indian Air Force training centre in the country. The IAF Station Bidar is used for advanced jet training of prospective fighter pilots on BAe Hawk aircraft.
Bidar city is known for its Bidri handicraft products, and its rich history. Bidar is also considered one of the holiest place for Sikh pilgrimage. Unlike other places in the region, Bidar is the coldest and wettest place in north Karnataka. For the year 2009–10, Bidar was ranked 22nd among the cleanest cities in India, and 5th cleanest in Karnataka. SH4 passes through Bidar and the whole city is integrated with a 4-lane road.
Etymology
The name Bidar appears to be derived from Kannada word ‘bidiru’, which means bamboo. It was also referred as Bhadrakot.
Legend has associated Bidar with the ancient kingdom of Vidarbha, to which references are found in early Hindu literature like Malavikagnimitra, Mahabharata, the Harivamsa, Bhagavata, and a few other Puranas. Its association can be seen apparently on account of the similarity in names Bidar and Vidarbha. This has been mentioned in Firishta's writings.
The traditional tales reveal that Vidura lived here; hence the place was earlier called Viduranagara and also as the place where Nala and Damayanti (Daughter of Raja Bhima, the King of Vidharba) were meeting.
Bidar under the rule of the Bahmani Sultanate was known as Muhammadabad.
History
The recorded History of the city goes back to the third century B.C. when it was a part of the Mauryan Empire. After the Mauryas, Satavahanas, Kadamba and Chalukyas of Badami and later the Rashtrakutas reigned over Bidar territory. The Chalukyas of Kalyana and Kalachuris of Kalyanis also regained the area. For a short period after Kalyani Chalukyas the area of Bidar was under the rule of Seunas of Devagiri and Kakatiyas of Warangal.
Bahmani Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate invaded the area first by Allauddin Khilji, and later, Muhammed-bin-Tughluq took control of entire Deccan including Bidar. In the middle of the 14th century, the Sultan of Delhi's officers that were stationed in Deccan rebelled and this resulted in the establishment of Bahmanid Dynasty in 1347 A.D. at Gulbarga/Hasanabad (present Kalaburagi). There was frequent warfare between the Bahmanids and the Vijaynagar Kingdom.
The history of the present fort at Bidar is attributed to the sultan Ahmed Shah Wali Bahmani, the sultan of the Bahmani dynasty till 1427, when he shifted his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar since it had better climatic conditions and was also a fertile and fruit-bearing land. The earliest recorded history of its existence as a small and strong fort is also traced to prince Ulugh Khan in 1322, whereafter it came under the reign of the Tughlaq dynasty.
With the establishment of the Bahmanid dynasty (1347), Bidar was occupied by Sultan Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah Bahmani. During the rule of Ahmad Shah I (1422–1486), Bidar was made the capital city of Bahmani Kingdom. The old fort was rebuilt and madrasas, mosques, palaces, and gardens were raised. Mahmud Gawan, who became the prime minister in 1466, was a notable figure in the history of Bidar. Bidar remained under the Barid Shahi dynasty until conquest by the Bijapur Sultanate in 1619.
Aurangzeb came to Bidar after his father, Padshah (emperor) Shah Jahan, appointed him the Prince of Deccan.
In 1635, during this campaign led by of Aurangzeb, Bidar was ravaged by Khan Dauran. In the end of 1656, and Mahmud Gawan Madrasa was entered by Aurangzeb himself. The historians of this time describes ″he entered the city and proceeding to a mosque which had been built 200 years before, in the reign of Bahamani Sultans, he ordered the khutba to be read in the name of his father, Shah Jahan. The madrasa was principally appropriated as barrack for a body of cavalry, while a room (or rooms) near the left minar were used to store gunpowder which exploded in an accident. It blew up fully of one-fourth of the edifice, destroying the tower and entrance.
Karez System
Ancient Karez System in the city have been recently discovered. The Karez (Qanat) is an underground network of aqueducts for water supply. The Bidar Karez, built in the 15th century, is more than long with 21 air vents. Underground canals, built to connect underground water streams, were meant to provide drinking water to civilian settlements and the garrison inside the Bidar fort. This was necessary in a city where the soil was rocky and drilling wells was difficult. The Bidar karez systems, believed to be the earliest ones in India, were constructed during the Bahmani period. According to Gulam Yazdani's documentation, Bidar has three karez systems: Naubad, Shukla Theerth, and Jamna Mori. Among these, Shukla Theerth stands out as the longest karez system in Bidar. The origin well of this karez was found near Gornalli Kere, a historic embankment. Jamna Mori, on the other hand, primarily served as a distribution system within the old city, with numerous channels intersecting the city streets.
Restoration efforts began in 2014, focusing on the desilting and excavation of the Naubad Karez. In 2015, this initiative led to the discovery of 27 vertical shafts connected to the Karez. The rejuvenation of these systems has had a significant positive impact on Bidar, a city facing water scarcity. Additionally, in 2016, during a sewage line excavation, a seventh line of the system was uncovered.
Geography
Bidar is located at , lies at a central position in Deccan, a plateau at an elevation of 2300 ft from the sea level. It has common boundaries with Maharashtra and Telangana which is, with the districts of Nizamabad and Medak in Telangana on the East and the districts of Latur, Nanded and Osmanabad in Maharashtra on the west. On the south lies the district Gulbarga of Karnataka.
Geology
thumb|[[Laterite under the Top soil Layer]]
The upper crust of the plateau is of laterite, a soft porous rock with limonitic surface. This crust varies in depth from to and rests on a bed of trap, which is of much harder texture and less pervious to water. The volume of water filtered during the monsoons through the laterite stratum is arrested by the trappean bed, and a nursery of springs is formed whose natural level of effluence is the line of contact of the two strata along the base of the cliffs of the plateau. The water in course of time frets out for itself an orifice and macerates and loosens portions of its rocky channel till a rift is produced. The rift gradually dilates into a ravine, and the ravine expands into a vale.
The Karez System is built along a geological fracture. Such fractures are formed at the intersection of laterite and basalt rocks and form lineaments or springs that yield water.
Soil
Bidar soils are deep (>100 cm), well-drained gravelly red clayey soils developed on plateaus of laterites. They are slightly acid to neutral (pH 6.6) in reaction with low cation exchange capacity. They are highly gravelly soils with gravel content (60 to 10%) that decrease with depth.
Climate
The winter season is from November to middle of February. Bidar is one of the coldest cities (by southern standards) in Karnataka as the minimum temperature during winter nights regularly hovers around 11-12 during December, which is the coldest month with mean daily maximum temperature of 27.3 C and mean daily minimum of 13.4 C. From the middle of the February, both day and night temperatures begin to rise rapidly. May is the hottest month with mean daily maximum temperature of 38.8 C and mean daily minimum of 25.9 C. With the withdrawal of southwest monsoon in the first week of October, there is slight increase in day temperature but night temperature decreases steadily. After October, both day and night temperatures decreases progressively. The hottest temperature recorded at Bidar was on 8 May 1931 and the lowest temperature was on 5 January 1901, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Karnataka.
During the 2025-2026 cold wave, Bidar recorded its record low for November and December, and in January.
Present day Bidar covers an expanse of 5448 square kilometres of land and lies between 17°35' and 18°25' North latitudes and 76°42' and 77°39' east longitudes.
Demographics
At the time of the 2011 census, Bidar had a population of 216,020. Bidar city has a sex ratio of 938 females to males and a literacy rate of 85.90%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 14.11% and 4.73% of the population respectively.