Berar', or HYDERABAD ASSIGNED DISTRICTS, a province of Central India, forming a commissionery under the resident of Hyderabad (Haidarabad). It is bounded on the N. and E. by the Central Provinces, on the W. by Bombay, and on the S. by the Nizam's dominions. Its length from east to west is about 150 miles, and its average breadth 144 miles; area, 17,711 sq. m.; pop. (1891) 2,896,670. The province consists of the districts of Amraoti, Ellichpur, Wun, Akola, Buldana, and
Basim, assigned to the British government under the treaties of 1853 and 1861 with the Nizam of Hyderabad, who was bankrupt, and unable to pay a large and increasing debt. The province is mainly a broad valley running east and west, between the Satpura Range in the north and the Ajanta Range on the south, and is divided into the Balaghat or upland country, and the Payanghat or lowland country. The valley at the base of the Satpuras, consisting of black loam, is extremely fertile, and is one rich sheet of waving crops in harvest time. It is traversed in its length by the Purna—itself a tributary of the Tapti—which, with its numerous affluents, affords an ample supply of water to the valley, and it is thus peculiarly suitable to the cultivation of cotton, forming indeed the richest and most extensive cotton-field in India. The other products are millet, oil-seeds, wheat, pulses, tobacco, and castor-oil. Beds of coal are found near the Wardha River, in the Wun district; iron ore is plentiful in the east, and the only natural lake is the salt Lake of Louár. The Great Indian and Peninsular Railway runs through the province from east to west. Ellichpur (pop. 26,728) was the capital of the old kingdom. The British, under General Wellesley, helped the Nizam in 1803 to crush the Mahratta power.