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Deolali

Military station, 1869–1947

देवळाली

Today Deolali, Maharashtra, India. Same place, same name.

Key facts

Historical name
Deolali
Type
Military station
Coordinates
19.9510° N, 73.8340° E(seed dataset)
Governance
Directly administered
Record confidence
Low confidence
Identifiers
Q958334

Directly administered by the Governor-General of India, and therefore part of British India in the statutory sense of the Interpretation Act 1889, s.18.

Location

Pin placed at the coordinates recorded for this place. Colonial-era boundaries are not drawn.

Description

British transit camp and military station near Nasik used for troops arriving in and departing from India.

Historical notes

Its reputation as a place where soldiers waited months for a troopship gave English the slang 'doolally'. Still an Indian Army station (Deolali Camp).

Administrative history

Administrative parenthood changed over time. Each row states the years it is recorded for, and the source it comes from.

Administrative units this place is recorded under, by year
YearsRelationUnitConfidence
from 1901Part ofBombay PresidencyPresidency · Directly administeredSnapshot from the 1901 census and the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31). End of the relationship not established; recorded as open rather than inferred.Low confidencesource
from 1901Part ofNasikDistrict · Directly administeredSnapshot from the 1901 census and the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31). End of the relationship not established; recorded as open rather than inferred.Low confidencesource

Recorded names

Every documented spelling and transliteration held for this place. The historical name is canonical; modern names redirect to it.

Name variants recorded for this place
NameScriptTypeYears
DeolaliLatinHistorical English
DevlaliLatinAlternative spelling
देवळालीDevanagariIndigenous

Records and references

Imperial Gazetteer of India
Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31), Vol. XI (11)
Census of India
Census of India, 1901, Vol. IX (9): Bombay (Town and Island excepted)

Sources

  1. Gazetteer· administrativeLicence unverified

    Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908–31), DSAL entry: Deolali, University of Chicago / Digital South Asia Library

    Digital South Asia Library, University of Chicago — the 1908–31 text is public domain, but DSAL's digital presentation states no licence; link-out only

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

  2. Database· identityCC0

    Wikidata (Q958334), Wikimedia Foundation

    Wikidata, CC0 1.0

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

  3. Archive· descriptionPublic domain

    Internet Archive scan: in.ernet.dli.2015.55938, Internet Archive

    Scanned volume of a pre-1929 publication (Imperial Gazetteer of India 1908–31 / Census of India 1901); public domain. Digitisation courtesy of the Internet Archive.

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

  4. Encyclopedia· generalCC BY-SA

    Wikipedia: Deolali, Wikimedia Foundation

    Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

Sources tagged “Licence unverified” are linked to rather than reproduced. Scans and images are only displayed inline where the licence is confirmed permissive.