Akhara or Akhada (Hindi: अखाड़ा, romanised: Akhāṛā) is an Indian word for a place of practice with facilities for boarding, lodging and training, both in the context of Indian martial artists or a sampradaya monastery for religious renunciates in Guru–shishya tradition. For example, in the context of the Dashanami Sampradaya sect, the word denotes both martial arts and religious monastic aspects of the trident-wielding martial regiment of the renouncing sadhus.

The term akhara, is a gender-egalitarian term, which means the circle or more precisely the spiritual core, congregation or league, it is similar to the Greek-origin word academy and the English word school, can be used to mean both a physical institution or a group of them which share a common lineage or are under a single leadership, such as the school of monastic thought or the school of martial arts. Unlike the gurukul in which students live and study at the home of a guru, members of an akhara although train under a guru but they do not live a domestic life. Some strictly practice Brahmacharya (celibacy) and others may require complete renunciation of worldly life. For example, wrestlers are expected to live a pure life while living at akhara with other fellow wrestlers, refraining from sex and owning few material possessions.

In some languages such as Odia the word is officially transcribed as akhada, by way of rendering the flapped [ɽ] sound as a d. The Haryanvi and Khari Boli dialects shorten this to khada (खाड़ा).

Jadunath Sarkar documented the founding date of various akharas based on a 19the century manuscript provided to him by the Nirvani Akhara of Dashanami Sampradaya.^{[citation needed]}

In its earliest usage, akhara referred to training halls for professional fighters. Govind Sadashiv Ghurye translates the term as "military regiment". Ancient use of the word can be found in the Mahabharata (c. 400 BCE text describing 900 BCE era) epic which mentions Jarasandha's Akhara at Rajgir. Legendary figures like Parashurama and Agastya are credited as the founders of the early martial akhara in certain regions of India.

Svinth (2002) traces press ups and squats used by South Asian wrestlers to the pre-classical era. Many of the popular sports mentioned in the Vedas and the epics have their origins in military training, such as boxing (musti-yuddha), wrestling (maladwandwa), chariot-racing (rathachalan), horse-riding (aswa-rohana) and archery (dhanurvidya).

When the 8th-century philosopher Adi Shankaracharya (788–820 CE) founded the Dashanami Sampradaya, he divided the ascetics into two categories: Shastradhari (Sanskrit: शास्त्रधारी, lit. scripture-bearers) intelligentsia and Astradhari (Sanskrit: अस्त्रधारी, lit. weapon-bearers) warriors. Shankaracharya established Naga sadhus as an astradhari armed order. He also popularised the Char Dhams during the reign of Katyuri dynasty of Garhwal Kingdom.

In 904 CE and 1146 CE, Niranjani Akhara and Juna Akhara were founded respectively.