 <font size="2" style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dewas District</span> in Ujjain Revenue Division, is situated on the Malawa plateau in the West-central&nbsp; part of Madhya Pradesh and lies between&nbsp; 20Âº17' and 23Âº20' North latitude and&nbsp; 75Âº54' and&nbsp; 77Âº08' East&nbsp; longitude. The district is bounded by&nbsp; Ujjain&nbsp; district&nbsp; in the north, Indore district in the west,&nbsp; West-Nimar district in the south-west, East Nimar district&nbsp; in the south, Hoshangabad&nbsp; district in the South East,&nbsp; Sehore district&nbsp; in the&nbsp;&nbsp; east and Shajapur district in the North-East. The tropic of cancer passes through the district near Nemawar village south of Khategaon town.<br /><br />Dewas is Hindi speaking area, commonly the dialect or tone of the area is called &quot;MALVI&quot;.&nbsp; Modern industry has taken off in Dewas in a big way. The growth is industry sector has given jobs to local factories. At the same time, traditional crafts / Handicrafts as Mojri (Shoes), Synthetic Carpets, leather works (begs, belts, ladies purses, shoes, coats , briefcases etc.) remain important in the economy. Agriculture (specially Soyabeen, wheat, gram) are also the source of economy. Many high tech industries has been also been setup for oil extraction. From Soyabeen. To control the Indian economy, BANK NOTE PRESS, a Central Government Organization for printing of Indian Currency is also situated here.<br /><br />Major cultural activities of the district are &quot;MALVI SONGS&quot; . Folk songs are also very popular on the occasion of marriages, festivals and local village fairs. The traditional dress of men is &quot;KURTA-DHOTI&quot; of white or contrast colors and the dresses of women are colorful and comprise of &quot;LUGDA, BLOUSE And &quot;LAHANGA&quot;. During the Nav-Ratries the idol of Goddess is established in all part of Dewas even in every street, &quot;GARBA&quot; is also very popular on this occasion. This function is celebrated at Dewas on a very large scale after Bengal because of a famous temple of MAA CHAMUNDA.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<br /><br /><br />Apart from this, Dewas is a very important centre of Classical Music, Two National level programs are organized here, one from the side of Ustad Alladuddin Khan Sangeet Academy, Bhopal in cooperation with&nbsp; Madhya Pradesh Government&nbsp; and local Administration called &quot;KUMAR GANDHARVA SAMAROH&quot; in this function National level young artists are awarded with &quot;KUMAR GANDHARVA SAMMAN&quot; and a sum of Rs. 51,000/-, the other Classical Programm organised from the side of Kumar Gandharva Sangeet Academy, Dewas.<br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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 chiefships 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 Khategon 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.<br /><br />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. All the tahsil head quarters are connected by all weather roads. 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.<br /><br /></font>