Dewan designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A dewan was the head of a state institution of the same name. Diwans belonged to the elite families in the history of Mughal and post-Mughal India and held high posts within the government.
Etymology
The word is Persian in origin and was loaned into Arabic. The original meaning was "bundle ", hence "book", especially "book of accounts," and hence "office of accounts," "custom house," "council chamber". The meaning of the word, divan "long, cushioned seat" is due to such seats having been found along the walls in Middle Eastern council chambers. It is a common surname among Sikhs in Punjab.
Council
The word first appears under the Caliphate of Omar I. As the Caliphate state became more complicated, the term was extended over all the government bureaus. The divan of the Sublime Porte was the council or Cabinet of the state. In the Ottoman Empire, it consisted of the usually presiding Grand Vizier and other viziers, and occasionally the Janissary Ağa. In 19th-century Romania, the Ad hoc Divan was a body which played a role in the country's development towards independence from Ottoman rule. In Javanese and related languages, the cognate "dewan" is the standard word for council, as in the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat or and Dewan Negara.
Indian subcontinent
Mughal Empire
During the effective rule of Mughal India, the Dewan served as the chief revenue officer of a province. Later, when most vassal states gained various degrees of self-determination, the finance — and/or chief minister and leader of many princely states became known as a dewan. Exceptionally, a ruler was himself titled Dewan or a loftier variation, notably:
As a title used in various Early ModernIndian states, Diwan denoted the highest officials in the court after the king; the suffix -ji is added as a mark of respect in India. In the major Maratha states of Baroda, Gwalior, Indore, and Nagpur, the highest officer after the king was called the Diwan. One of the examples – Shrimant Diwan/Rao Bahadur Atmaram Kulkarni, was the Diwan of Maratha Jamkhandi State. In the 19th century, the British Parliament established in British India a supreme court for revenue matters named the "Sudder Dewanny Adawlut", which applied Hindu law.
There is also a community with the surname Diwan found in Chhattisgarh, near the Bilaspur and Janjgir-Champa regions. This is a Brahmin-Rajput community descendant from Deo Brahmin-Rajputs who migrated from Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh. The males in this community take the title Dhar. They had a fight with the Royal Family of Ratanpur & defeated the king & started ruling the Ratanpur estate.
In French India, one of its constituent colonies, Yanaon, had Zamindar and Diwan. They were active in its local and municipal administration during French rule. The Zamindar of Yanam was given a 4-gun salute by French counterparts.
