DEWAS

city, western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It is located on the Malwa Plateau at the foot of the conical Chamunda Hill, which rises to a Devivasini shrine. Jaina and Hindu temple ruins lie just south of the city, in Nagara. The surrounding area consists chiefly of level plains of the Malwa Plateau, watered by the Narmada, Sipra, and Kali Sindh rivers. Wheat, sorghum, rice, cotton, and oilseeds are the chief crops. Dewas is a major road junction and agricultural trade centre. Cotton and flour milling, handloom weaving, and soap manufacture are the city's chief industries. Dewas, formerly the joint capital of Dewas Senior and Junior princely states, has a musical academy and a government college of education affiliated with Vikram University. Dewas was founded by two Panwar Maratha brothers who entered Malwa in 1728. From 1841 the senior and junior branches of the family ruled their own portions independently as part of the British Central India Agency. Both states merged with Madhya Pradesh in 1956. Pop. (1991 prelim.) city, 163,699.