Dewas District in Ujjain Revenue Division, is situated on the Malwa plateau in the
West-central part of Madhya Pradesh and lies between 20°17´ and 23°20´ North latitude
and 75°54´ and 77°08´ East longitude. The district is bounded by Ujjain district
in the north, Indore district in the west, West-Nimar district in the south-west,
East Nimar district in the south, Hoshangabad district in the South East, Sehore
district in the east and Shajapur district in the North-East. The tropic of cancer
passes through the district near Nemawar village south of Khategaon town.
The district gets its name from the district headquarters town, Dewas which is said
to have been derived on the basis of two traditions. One is that Dewas lies on the
foot of a conical hill, known as Chamunda hill about 300 ft. above the ground level
on top of which the shrine of Chamunda is located. The image of the Goddess is cut
in rocky wall of a cave. It is, therefore, known as Devi Vashini or the Goddess's
residence. From this the name Dewas (dev-vas) seems to have been derived. The other
view of the probable origin is from the name of the founder of the village Dewasa
Bania.
The present Dewas district broadly corresponds to the twin treaty States in Malwa
Political charge of the Central India Agency, divided into a Senior and a Junior
branch of the early twentieth century with some adjustments of other territories.
There were two district chief ships with separate administrations, acting independently
in most matters, sharing the same capital town of Dewas. Consequent upon the merger
of princely States and the formation of Madhya Bharat State in 1948 there was reconstitution
of boundaries and thus the district in the present form was constituted.
The reconstituted district was, however, formed by merging 242 villages of the two
tahsils of Dewas of the former Senior and Junior State, 452 villages of Sonkatch
tahsil and of 99 villages of Ujjain tahsil of former Gwalior state, 99 villages
of Nimanpur tahsil of former Dhar state, one village of Jawar tahsil of former Bhopal
State, and then the existing tahsils of Kannod and Khategaon of former Holkar State.
With the reorganization of States on linguistic basis on 1st November 1956, Madhya
Bharat, with other territories got merged to form the New state of Madhya Pradesh
and thus Dewas continues to be one of the districts in it.
The district is now divided in to 6 tahsils viz. Sonkatch, Dewas, Bagli, Kannod,
Tonk-Khurd and Khategaon. Dewas tahsil is situated on the north-western part of
the district, Sonkatch on the north-eastern part, Bagli on the south, Kannod on
the south-central part and Khategaon on the South-east. Weather road connects all
the tahsil head quarters. The Head-quarters of Dewas tahsil, which is also the district
headquarters, is situated on The Bombay-Agra National Highway No.3 and is also connected
by broad-gauge railway line of western Railway.