DEWAS, two Indian states, in the Malwa Political Charge of Central India, founded in the first half of the i8th century by two brothers, Punwar Mahrattas, who came into Malwa with the peshwa, Baji Rao, in 1728. Their descendants are known as the senior and junior branches of the family, and since 1841 each has ruled his own portion as a separate state, though the lands be longing to them are so intimately entangled that even in Dewas, the capital town, the two sides of the main street are under differ ent administrations and have different arrangements for water supply and lighting. The senior branch has an area of 449 sq.m. and a population of 83,321, while the area of the junior branch is 419 sq.m. and its population 70,513. The two chiefs reside in dif ferent palaces in the town of Dewas, and each is entitled to a salute of 15 guns.