Current Time in Parbhani, India

Parbhani is a city in the Marathwada region of the state of Maharashtra in central India, standing on the Deccan plateau between the valleys of the Godavari and Purna rivers. The countryside around it is open black cotton soil, one of the most fertile but also one of the most drought sensitive farming landscapes in the country. The climate is hot and dry for much of the year, with the monsoon bringing relief between June and September and a short cool winter.

Roughly three hundred thousand people live in the city, which is the headquarters of Parbhani District. Its importance is agricultural above all. Cotton, sorghum, soybean, pulses, sugar cane and turmeric are grown in the surrounding taluks, and the city serves as a market, ginning and processing centre for the whole region.

The name is traditionally derived from a temple of the goddess Prabhavati that once stood here. Parbhani formed part of the territories of the Yadavas, the Bahmani sultanate and later the Nizam of Hyderabad, and it joined the Indian union in 1948 when Hyderabad State was integrated. This long period under Deccan sultanate and Nizami rule has left a distinctive mixed heritage, visible in mosques, tombs and stepwells as well as in Hindu temples, and in the shared vocabulary of the local Marathi and Deccani Urdu speech.

The best known religious site is the dargah of Hazrat Turabul Haq, a Sufi shrine whose annual urs festival attracts very large crowds of both Muslim and Hindu pilgrims and is one of the most notable expressions of composite culture in Marathwada. The Pardeshwar temple, with its crystal lingam, and the Jain caves and ancient temples at Jintur and Nemgiri in the district are also visited, while the great pilgrimage centres of Nanded, Aundha Nagnath and Parli Vaijnath lie within a short journey.

Parbhani is a significant railway town, standing at a junction on the line between Manmad and Secunderabad with branches towards Parli and Nanded, and it is well served by state highways. Local transport relies on buses, autorickshaws and shared vehicles, and the nearest airports are at Nanded and Aurangabad.

The city's most important institution is the Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agricultural University, established in 1972, which conducts research into dryland farming, crop varieties suited to low rainfall and irrigation techniques, and which serves districts across the region. Colleges of engineering, medicine, arts and science add to a substantial student population.

Daily life reflects the rhythms of an agricultural town, with weekly markets, temple and mosque festivals, kabaddi and cricket, and a cuisine known for spicy Marathwada preparations, jowar bhakri and the fiery flavours of the Deccan interior.

Parbhani is not a tourist city in the usual sense, but it is important as an agricultural research and market centre and as a place where the Hindu and Islamic traditions of the Deccan have coexisted for centuries.