The district of Dewas is situated in Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The district headquarters is located in the town of Dewas. The District roughly corresponds to the territories of the twin princely states of Dewas. The district straddles the Vindhya Range; the northern portion of the district lies on the Malwa plateau, on the southern portion lays the Valley of River Narmada. The portion on the Malwa Plateau grows wheat, sorghum, rice, and cotton. The Narmada forms the southern boundary of the district. The district is surrounded by Sehore District towards the east, Harda and Khandwa districts towards the south, by Khargone and Indore districts towards the west, and by Ujjain and Shajapur districts towards the north. Dewas District is part of Ujjain Division. Devsaal Rawats of Uttarakhand are said to have their origins in Dewas at the time of legendary king Vikramaditya.

 Dewas District is now divided in to six tehsils namely Sonkatch, Dewas, Bagli, Kannod, Tonk-Khurd and Khategaon. Dewas tehsil is situated on the north-western part of the district, Sonkatch on the north-east part, Bagli on the south, Kannod on the south-central part and Khategaon on the South-east. All the tehsil head quarters are well connected with roadways. The head-quarters of Dewas tehsil, which is also the district headquarters, is situated on the Bombay-Agra National Highway No.3 and well connected by broad-gauge railway line of western Railway. People here speak Bareli Rathwi and a Bhil language by approx 64, 000 inhabitants, written in Devanagari script.

 History of Dewas

 Dewas was formerly the capital of two princely states of British India. The original state was founded in the first half of the 18th century by Rao brothers, Tukaji Rao and Jivaji Rao, from the Pawar clan of Marathas, who advanced into Malwa with the Maratha Peshwa, Baji Rao, in 1728. The brothers divided the territory among themselves; their descendants ruled as the senior and junior branches of the family. After 1841, each branch ruled his own portion as a separate state, though the lands belonging to each were so intimately entangled, that even 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 senior branch had an area of 446 sq mi. Both Dewas states were in the Malwa Agency of the Central India Agency. After India's independence in 1947, the Rajas of Dewas acceded to India, and their states were integrated into Madhya Bharat, which became a state of India in 1950. In 1956, Madhya Bharat was merged into the state of Madhya Pradesh.