Kandesh (also Khandesh) is a region of central India, which forms the northwestern portion of Maharashtra state. Kandesh lies on the northwestern corner of the Deccan plateau, in the valley of the Tapti River, and is bound to the north by the Satpura Range, to the east by the Berar (Vidarbha) region, to the south by the Desh region of Maharashtra, and to the west by the northernmost ranges of the Western Ghats, and beyond them the coastal plain of Gujarat.

The principal natural feature is the Tapti River. Unlike the rest of the Deccan, whose rivers rise in the Western Ghats and flow eastward to the Bay of Bengal, the Tapti flows westward from headwaters in eastern Maharashtra to empty into the Arabian Sea. The Tapti receives thirteen principal tributaries in its course through Kandesh. None of the rivers is navigable, and the Tapti flows in a deep bed which historically made it difficult to use for irrigation. Most of Kandesh lies south of the Tapti, and is drained by its tributaries the Girna , Bori and Panjhra. The alluvial plain north of the Tapti contains some of the richest tracts in Kandesh, and the land rises towards the Satpura hills. In the centre and east the country is level, save for some low ranges of barren hills. To the north and west, the plain rises into rugged hills, thickly wooded, and inhabited by the tribal Bhil people.

Kandesh was ruled by the Faruqi dynasty from 1388 to 1601, who maintained their independence from the Bahmani Sultanate which ruled much of the Deccan from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Kandesh was conquered by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1601, and became a province of the Mughal empire. It was conquered by the Marathas in the early eighteenth century, and ruled by the Maratha Peshwas until their defeat in the Third Anglo-Maratha War in 1818, when Kandesh, along with most of the Peshwa's dominions, became part of Bombay province of the British Raj. The region was administered as Khandesh district, which was divided in 1906 into two districts, East Khandesh and West Khandesh. East Khandesh, headquartered at Jalgaon, had an area of 4544 sq. mi, and a population of 957,728 in 1901, and West Khandesh, headquartered at Dhulia (Dhule) had an area of 5497 sq. mi. and a population of 469,654 in 1901.

After India's independence in 1947, Bombay province became Bombay state, which in 1960 was divided into the linguistic states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. East Khandesh became Jalgaon district, and West Khandesh was divided into the districts of Dhule and Nandurbar.