Dewas State was a territory within Central India, which was the seat of two

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...

s during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi language, Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Q ...

. After the

Maratha conquest The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shi ...

of Central India, Dewas was divided into two states - Dewas Senior ruled by Tukoji Rao ('Baba Saheb') Puar and Dewas Junior ruled by Jivaji Rao ('Dada Saheb') Puar. On 12 December 1818, the 2 Dewas States became British protectorates.

History

Foundation and being part of Maratha empire

The seats were established in 1728 by two brothers from the

clan

Puar Puar may refer to: * Pawar, Maratha rulers of Dhar State and Dewas State. * Pu'ar, a character in ''Dragon Ball'' People with the name * Hemendra Singh Rao Pawar, present titular Maharaja of Dhar State * Tukojirao III (Tukoji Rao III Puar of Dew ...

, who advanced into Malwa with the

Peshwa The Peshwa (Pronunciation: e(ː)ʃʋaː was the appointed (later becoming hereditary) prime minister of the Maratha Empire of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later ...

Baji Rao, and divided the territory among themselves after the

. Their descendants ruled as the senior and junior branches of the family.

Princely states under British rule

After 1841, each branch ruled his 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 for water supply and lighting. The two

Raja ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in history of South Asia, South Asia and History of ...

s heading Dewas states both lived in separate residences in the town of Dewas, and ruled over separate areas. The Junior branch had an area of and had a population of 54,904 in 1901, while the Senior branch had an area of and a population of in 62,312 in the same year. Both Dewas states were in the Malwa Agency of the

Central India Agency The Central India Agency was created in 1854, by amalgamating the Western Malwa Agency with other smaller political offices which formerly reported to the Governor-General of India. The agency was overseen by a political agent who maintained ...

. Dewas Junior & Senior Darbars (Court) composed of Jagirdars,

Sardar Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar/Sirdar ( fa, سردار, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other aristocrats. It has also been u ...

s, Istamuradars and

Mankari Mankari (Mānkari or Maankari) is a hereditary title used by Maratha nobles and troops from the Indian subcontinent who held land grants, and cash allowances. They held an official position at the Darbar (court) and were entitled to certain cer ...

Accession to Indian Union

After India's independence in 1947, the

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great Monarch, king" or "high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Em ...

s of Dewas acceded to India, and their states were integrated into

Madhya Bharat Madhya Bharat, also known as Malwa Union, was an Indian state in west-central India, created on 28 May 1948 from twenty-five princely states which until 1947 had been part of the Central India Agency, with Jiwajirao Scindia as its Rajpramuk ...

, which became a state of India in 1950. In 1956, Madhya Bharat was merged into

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital city, capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar, and Rewa, India, Rewa being the othe ...

state.

References

{{coord, 22.96, N, 76.06, E, region:IN_type:landmark_source:kolossus-svwiki, display=title Dhar district Princely states of Madhya Pradesh Princely states of Maharashtra States and territories disestablished in 1948 1948 disestablishments in India Dewas district History of Madhya Pradesh 1728 establishments in Asia

History

Foundation and being part of Maratha empire

Princely states under British rule

Accession to Indian Union

See also

References