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Solapur district (Marathi pronunciation:
Solapur district leads Maharashtra in the production of Indian cigarettes known as beedi.
A dynasty calling itself the Rashtrakutas, whose first ancestor ruled in around 350CE, had their base at Manapura in modern Satara district. Their core territory was the Kuntala region, and they often harassed the Vakataka dynasty in Vidarbha. A work ascribed to Kalidasa mentions how the Gupta ruler Chandragupta II sent him as ambassador to the Kuntala king, who eventually warmed up to him. Kalidasa says how he made peace between the Vakatakas and the Rashtrakutas, but was scathing of the lord of Kuntala's neglect of statecraft. Around the 5th century CE, an inscription records an invasion of Kuntala by the Vakatakas and that the lord of Kuntala was made into a feudatory of theirs.
Around the turn of the 6th century CE, the Vakatakas were defeated. A tradition recorded around 125 years later claims the last Vakataka king was given wholly over to pleasures and neglected his kingdom, encouraged by a son of his feudatory in Asmaka. When the kingdom was sufficiently weakened, the ruler of Asmaka invited the Kadambas to invade. In the battle between Kadambas and Vakatakas, the rulers of Asmaka and Kuntala betrayed their overlord and helped the Kadambas win the battle. Afterwards the ruler of Asmaka took over Vidarbha as well as Kuntala, but he was soon overthrown by the Vishnukundins. The Vishnukundins may have briefly controlled Kuntala for a time, but after their overthrow the Rashtrakutas declared independence. The Chalukyas under Pulakeshin II soon ousted the Rashtrakutas and took over Kuntala.
The Chalukyas continued to rule over present Solpaur until the rise of the Rashtrakutas under Dantidurga. The dynasty continued its rule over southern Maharashtra until the middle of the 10th century, when it collapsed quickly. Taila II, the Chalukya mahasamanta of the Rashtrakutas, captured Manyakheta from the last Rashtrakuta king Karka III and took over most of present Maharashtra and northern Karnataka. His descendants of the Western Chalukyas continued dominance until the middle of the 12th century. Several of their feudatories, such as the Kalachuris of Kalyani and Hoysalas, began revolts. During Kalachuri rule Lingayat thought began to spread throughout north Karnataka and southern Maharashtra, including Solapur.
At the same time that the Kalachuris overthrew the Western Chalukyas, one of their other feudatories, the Seunas, also called Yadavas, from Khandesh, declared independence. The Yadavas under Bhillama V, conquered all territory north of the Krishna including all of present Solapur district. Eventually the Yadavas defeated the Hoysalas and took all territory north of the Bhadra. Several grants were made to Yogeshwara during the reigns of some Yadava rulers. The Yadava rulers and their ministers made many contributions to the Pandharpur temple which is situated in the district.
In 1317 Alauddin's successor, Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah led an expedition against the Yadavas. Harpaldev was flayed alive and beheaded and the entire Yadava kingdom was permanently annexed by the Delhi Sultanate. Solapur was then ruled from Devagiri by a governor.
During the reign of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, who infamously tried to shift the capital of his empire to Devagiri (renamed Daulatabad), there was a large famine in the region. In 1344, an uprising of Hindu chieftains of Karnataka and Telangana briefly overthrew Sultanate rule in the region, although Delhi sultans kept control over some of the revenue centres. In 1347, Muslim nobles in the Deccan rebelled against Muhammad bin Tughlaq's authority and defeated all attempts to control them. The rebels then declared one of their number, Hasan Gangu, as sultan of all territories in the Deccan, which began the rule of the Bahmani Kingdom.
At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 73.13% of the population in the district spoke Marathi language, 9.28% Kannada, 6.47% Hindi, 4.49% Telugu language, 3.94% Urdu and 0.94% Lambadi as their first language.
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