Dewas is a city in the Malwa region of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The municipality was formerly the seat of two princely states during the British Raj, Dewas Junior state and Dewas Senior state, ruled by the Puar clan of Maratha.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 Vaishini 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 and Vas Marathi, so Dewas means house of the god. 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 the district headquarters town, Dewas, which is said to have been derived on the basis of two traditions. One is that Dewas lies at the base of a 300-foot (91m) conical hill, known as Chamunda hill, on top of which the shrine of Chamunda is located. 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. The other view of the probable origin is from the name of the founder of the city, Dewasa Bania