AKOLA, a town and district of India, in Berar, otherwise known as the Hyderabad Assigned Districts. The town is on the Murna tributary of the Purna river, Akola proper being on the west bank, and Tajnapeth, containing the Government buildings and European residences, on the east bank. It had a pop. (1931) of 47,632. It is walled, and has a citadel built in the early years of the 19th century. Akola is one of the chief centres of the cotton trade in Berar, and has numerous ginning factories and cotton presses. Among the educational establishments are a Government high school, and an industrial school supported by a Protestant mission.
The District of Akola as reconstituted in 1905 has an area of •4,091sq.m., the population of this area in 1931 being 876,362. The surface of the country is generally flat, the greater part being situated in the central valley of Berar. On the north it is bounded by the Melghat hills. By the addition of Basim and Mangrul taluks in 1905, the district includes the eastern part of the Ajanta hills, with peaks rising to 2,000ft., and the tableland of Basim. North of the Ajanta hills the country is drained east ward by the Purna affluent of the Tapti and its tributaries. The average temperature at the town of Akola in May for the 25 years ending 1901 was 94.4° F. But even during the hot season the nights are cool. The annual rainfall averages 34in. In the Purna valley the soil is everywhere a rich black loam particularly suitable to cotton, and nearly the whole of the land is cultivated. The history of Akola is not distinguished from that of the other portions of Berar.