Ahmednagar is a city in Ahmednagar district in the state of Maharashtra, India, about 120 km northeast of Pune and 114 km from Aurangabad. Ahmednagar takes its name from Ahmad Nizam Shah I, who founded the town in 1494 on the site of a battlefield where he won a battle against superior Bahamani forces. It has a total population of 350,859. The highest employment in the district is in Food and Beverage, Tobacco, Textile, Leather, Paper, Chemical and Metal based industries. The district has 71% of the workforce employed in the Agricultural Sector, 26% in the Industrial Sector and the remaining 3% are Household workers.
The district of Ahmadnagar is named after Ahmadnagar town. The town is famous since the medieval times. In the year 1490 when Ahmad Nizam Shah, the founder of the Nizam dynasty defeated the Bahamani troops under Jahangir Khan near its site. This Victory was called the Victory of the Garden. Because on that spot Ahmad Shah built a palace and laid out a garden. In the year 1494 he laid the foundation of the city close to the bag Nizam upon the left bank of the Sina River and called after himself Ahmad Nagar or the city of Ahmad.
For administrative purpose the district is divided into four subdivisions, viz., 1) Ahmadnagar 2) Karjat 3) Shrirampur and 4) Sangamner. Ahmadnagar sub-division includes Nagar, Parner, Shevgaon and Pathardi tahsils, Karjat sub-division includes Karjat, Shrigonda and Jamkhed tahsils, Shrirampur sub-division includes Shrirampur, Nevasa, Rahuri and Rahata tahsils and Sangamner sub-division includes Sangamner, Kopargaon and Akola tahsils.
The entire district is occupied by basaltic lava flows, which are popularly known as Deccan Traps. These lava flows are sometimes associated with inter trapper beds such as limestone, clay, shale, red bole beds, porouash thin mantle of black cotton soil present almost everywhere on the basalts. River alluvial sand, carvel, clays and silts represent the recent deposits in the district.
Godavari and Bhima are the major rivers of the district. The Pravara is the tributary of Godavari. The Mula, the Adhale and the Mahalungi are the important tributaries of the Pravara. The southern part of the district consisting of Parner, Ahmednagar, Pathardi, Shrigaonda and Karjat tehsils constitutes the Bhima basin with the tributaries Kukadi and Ghod.
