Deoli, India

History

The town of Deoli was established by the British in 1854, earlier it was a small village. It is believed that the name Deoli came from the Hindi word Devro (देवरों), meaning "Place of Gods", due to the existence of many temples to Hindu deities. It has a reservoir, "Nayanabhiram" or "Nekchal" Lake, literally meaning "good motive lake". This British-made lake was constructed to fight drought and scarcity of water. The cost of acquiring land, incurred for construction of Camp Deoli, by the British, was Rs.

After the 1962 Sino-Indian War, approximately 3000 Indian citizens of Chinese origin along with Tibetans suspected of being Chinese agents were interned here, some till 1967.

The church was established here during the British period. It is said to be about a hundred years old. There is a medieval pilgrimage center around the Deoli, which includes Boeyda Ganeshji (in the nearby village of Boeyda), Kunchalvada-Mata, Chandali Mata (in the nearby village of Chandali), Gokarneshwar Mahadev, Ravata Hanuman ji, Gadoli Mahadev, Lakdeshwar Mahadev, Hindeshwar Mahadev etc. Amongst these, there is a story associated with Hindeshwar Mahadev of Hindoli that, during exile, the Pandavas built this Shiva Lingam with only five fistfuls of clay (पाँच मुटृठी (धोबे)). There is also a folklore that ten-headed Ravana performed Shiva Worshipping in nearby Bisalpur at Gokarneshwar Mahadev Temple.

From the History section of Deoli, Rajasthan on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.