Hindu Kingdom of Berar
Little or nothing is known of the early history of the District, but we have a mention of the river Wardha so for back as the 2nd century B.C. The early mention goes to Berar – the King of Vidharbha. The country of Vidarbha (Berar) was later divided into two (between Berar and his cousin Madhavansena), each ruling on one side of the riverv (Wardha).
Chalukya and Radhtrakuta Kings
Wardha with the rest of Berar probably formed part of the Chalukya Rajput dynasty whose capital was situated in the modern Bijapur District and subsequently at Nasik and whose rule lasted from about 550 to 750 A.D.Copper-plate grants belonging to this dynasty have been found at Multai in Betul and at Deoli in Wardha. The Deoli plate is dated A. D. 940 in the reign of the king Krishna III; it records the grant of a village named Talapurumshaka in the Nagapura-Nandivardhan District to a Kanarese Brahman.
The Bahmani Kingdom
Wardha was subsequently included in the territories of the Bahmani kings of Gul barga near Solapur and Bidar, who established an independent principality in 1351, and were so called because the founder of their line, elected after the revolt from Muhammad Tughlak, was either a Brahman or a Brahman’s servant. Mr. Sir A. Lyall says : ‘We may venture to describe roughly the Bahmani province of Berar as stretching from the Satpura range southward to Godavari river, from Khandesh and Daulatabad eastward to the Wardha river.
The Imad Shahi Dynasty
There is and early mention of an invasion of Berar by the king of Gujarat in 1437 in which the Raja of Gondwana (across the Wardha) aided and abetted. This Raja must probably have belonged to the Chanda line. On the collapse of the Bahmani dynasty in 1518, Berar was ruled for a period by the Imad Shahi princes from their capital at Ellichpur, the founder of the dynasty being a Kanarese Hindu whom the governor of Berar had promoted to high office.
The Mughal Empire
The Ellichpur kingdom was crushed out of being by the king of Ahmadnagar in 1572 after a separate existence of ninety years, and in about 1594 Berar was ceded from Ahmadnagar to the Emperor Akbar.
The Maratha Invasion
The tract west of the Wardha included in Berar was finally ceded to Nagpur in 1822, the forts of Gawilgarh and Narnala and some other territory in being retroceded by the Bhonslas to the Nizam at the same time.