Dewas

Dewas is a city in the Malwa region of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The municipality was formerly the seat of two 15-Gun Salute state princely states during the British Raj, Dewas Junior state and Dewas Senior state, ruled by the Pawar clan of the Marathas. The city is the administrative capital of Dewas district. Dewas is an industrialised city and houses a government bank note press.

The name Dewas is derived from the Devi Vashini hill in the city, commonly known as Tekri. The hill has a temple of the deities Devi Tulja Bhawani, Chamunda Mata and Kalika Mata. The word Dewas is believed to be a sandhi of the words Dev (deity) and Vas (abode in Marathi), so Dewas means abode of the gods. Swami Shivom Tirtha wrote the history of the hill (Tekri ) of Dewas in his book, Sadhan Shikhar. Inspired by the area, E.M. Forster wrote The Hill of Devi in 1953.

The district takes its name from its headquarters town, Dewas, which is said to be derived from the legend that Dewas rests at the foot of a 300 ft (91 m) conical hill known as Chamunda hill, on whose summit is the shrine of Goddess Chamunda. The image of the goddess is cut into the wall of a cave, known as Devi Vashini or the goddess's residence. From this, the name Dewas (dev-vas) seems to have been derived.

Dewas was formerly the capital of two princely states of British India. The original state was founded in the first half of the 18th century by the brothers Tukaji Rao (senior) and Jivaji Rao (junior), from the Pawar clan of the Marathas. They had advanced into Malwa with the Maratha Peshwa, Baji Rao, in 1728. The brothers divided the territory among themselves; their descendants ruled as the senior and junior branches of the family. After 1841, each branch ruled its own portion as a separate state, though the lands belonging to each were intimately entangled; in Dewas, the capital town, the two sides of the main street were under different administrations and had different arrangements water supply and lighting.

In 1901, the senior branch had an area of 446 sq mi (1,160 km²) and a population of 62,312, while the area of the junior branch was 440 sq mi (1,100 km²) and had a population of 54,904. Both Dewas states were in the Malwa Agency of the Central India Agency.

Dewas Junior and Dewas Senior durbars (courts) were composed of Sardars, Mankaris, Istamuradars, Thakurs and Jagirdars.

After India's independence in 1947, the Maharajas of Dewas (Jr. & Sr.) acceded to India, and their states were integrated into Madhya Bharat, which became a state of India in 1950. Later, in 1956, Madhya Bharat was merged into the state of Madhya Pradesh.

Dewas lies northeast of Indore, southeast of Ujjain, and southwest of Shajapur. The city is located on the level plains of the Malwa plateau; to the south, the land rises gently to the Vindhya Range, which is the source of the Chambal and Kali Sindh rivers that flow north through the district on their way to the Ganges. The main river in Dewas is Kshipra.