It comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered parts of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states.

[2] The Central Provinces was landlocked, occupying the mountain ranges, plateaus, and river valleys in the centre of the Indian subcontinent.

The northernmost portion of the state extended onto the Bundelkhand upland, whose northward-flowing rivers are tributaries of the Yamuna and Ganges.

A portion of Berar lay in the upper basin of the Tapti River, which drains westward into the Arabian Sea.

The eastern portion of the state lay in the upper Mahanadi River basin, which forms fertile rice-growing region of Chhattisgarh.

[3] The central Provinces contained two distinct linguistic regions: Mahakoshal, consisting mainly of Hindi-speaking districts, and Vidarbha, chiefly, but not exclusively, a Marathi-speaking area.

[4] In the 1901 census, 6,111,000 (63% percent) of the population spoke variants of Hindi, chiefly Chhattisgarhi (27%), Bundeli (15%), Bagheli (10%) and Malvi or Rajasthani (5%).

Berar was under the administrative authority of the Chief Commissioner for the Central Provinces, but administered separately.