BEEDER, a province of Hindostan, in the Deccan, si-
tuated principally between the 16th and 18th degrees of N. lat. It is bounded on the north by Aurungabad and Berar, on the south by the province of Hyderabad, on the east by Hyderabad and Gundwana, and on the west by Aurungabad and Bejapoor. This country is comprehended in the dominions subject to the Nizam, and is governed by his officers. It is of an uneven and hilly surface, but not mountainous, and is watered by many small rivers, which flow into the larger streams of the Beema, Krishna, and Godavery. The country is in general productive, and was flourishing and populous under the old Hindoo government; but it is now thinly inhabited, com-
pared with the British provinces. Although this province has long been ruled by princes of the Mahomedan persuasion, the Hindoos form the great bulk of the population, exceeding the Mahomedans in the proportion of ten to one. The largest rivers are the Godavery and Manjerna, and the chief towns Beeder, Calberga, Nundere, and Caliany. After the Mahomedan conquest this province was the seat of a dynasty of Deccan sovereigns, who began to reign in A. D. 1347. Along with the other Deccan provinces, the country fell under the Mogul dominion towards the conclusion of the seventeenth century, during the reign of Aurungzebe, from whose successors it was separated in 1717 by Nizam ul Muluck, and has ever since remained in the possession of his posterity.