Pauni is a town and a Municipal Council in Bhandara district in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Pauni is surrounded by Umred-Karhandla wildlife sanctuary, famous for tigers and other wild animals.

Pauni is an ancient city, surrounded by a rampart and moat, the latter partly preserved.

The city wall, atop the rampart, is partly preserved and dates to the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries.

20°47′01″N 79°38′09″E / 20.7835°N 79.6357°E / 20.7835; 79.6357 There is an earthen mound to the south of Pauni, outside the fort-wall on the bank of the Balasamudra water body.

[8] The excavations revealed also a number of carved pillars, some on the site, and other pieces now in the National Museum of India and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya.

A second stupa was excavated by Nagpur University near the village of Chandakapur, about 600 meters south of Jagannath Tekri.

[5][6] Although monumental, no sculptures or decorations were found from this stupa, suggesting a severe, unadorned, design.

A large megalith stone was found here, inscribed in the early historic period with the name of the ruler Bhagadatta.

[19] A memorial pillar with an inscription in the name of "Mahakshatrapa Kumara Rupiamma" has been recovered in Pauni,[23] and is dated to the 2nd century CE.

[22] This memorial pillar is thought to mark the southern extent of the conquests of the Western Satraps, much beyond the traditionally held boundary of the Narmada River.

[22] As a "Great Satrap", Rupiamma may alternatively, or jointly, have been a feudatory or representative of the Kushan Empire, which would suggest that Kushan control also extended this far south, beyond the generally accepted southern boundary formed by the Narmada River.

It appears that there are remains of what once was the water barrier which served the purpose of defending the town from the invaders.

It is connected to the cities of Bhandara, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Gadchilroli via State and National Highways.