The first Rashtrakuta capital, Mayurkhandi, was in Bidar district. The regal capital was later moved by Amoghavarsha I to Manyakheta in the present Gulbarga district. Kalyani (today called Basavakalyan, after Basaveshwara) in Bidar district was the capital of Western Chalukyas, who were also called Kalyani Chalukyas after their capital. The Kalachuris continued with Kalyani as their capital.

Later, Bidar was ruled in succession by the Sevuna Yadavas of Devagiri and the Kakatiyas of Warangal, before being invaded by the armies of Allauddin Khilji, Malik Kafur and Muhammad bin Tughluq.The generals of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq who were nominated as viceroys of the newly conquered Deccan region broke up and formed the Bahmani Sultanate under Allauddin Hasan Gangu Bahman Shah.

The Bahmani capital was shifted from Ahsanabad ([gulbarga]], mispronunciated as kalburgi by kannada speaking population, to Muhammadabad (Bidar, as it was called then), in 1425 and remained capital until the Sultanate’s breakup after 1518. It then became the center of the Barid Shahis, one of the five independent sultanates known as the Deccan sultanates, that were the successor states to the Bahmani kingdom.

The Bidar Sultanate was absorbed by the Bijapur Sultanate to the west in 1619, which was in turn conquered by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1686. Bidar was part of the Nizam of Hyderabad’s dominions from 1724 to 1948, when Hyderabad was annexed to India to become Hyderabad state. In 1956, it became a part of Mysore state, later renamed Karnataka.