The Tomaras of Delhi

Who he is

Name

not known: the sources we reached do not name him

Title

Last Tomara ruler of Delhi (deposed 1193)

Since

kept as a vassal in 1192; deposed for treason in 1193 (Nizami 1992, pp. 167 to 168)

Born

not pinned

Family

The Tomara house (founders of Delhi by tradition in 736, or 1052: the sources disagree) had lost Delhi to the Chahamana Vigraharaja IV in the mid twelfth century (1151 in a quoted source).

Confidence

low

Wikipedia's Tomara article says bardic tradition makes Anangpal the last king who gave Delhi to Prithviraja; the article rejects this and says Prithviraja inherited Delhi from Someshvara. A Tomara client was nonetheless found in Delhi by Aibak in 1192 and removed in 1193. No source we reached shows a Tomara claim in 1200.

Overlord

none: deposed

What it holds

• Nothing: a lordship over villages and their headmen in the Delhi hinterland, lost in 1193

How it was acquired

Ruled Delhi by tradition from the eighth century or the eleventh; lost to the Chahamanas mid twelfth century; a client of the Ghurids 1192 to 1193.

Allies and rivals

Enemy of the Ghurids since 1193; the Chahamana remnants are kin by marriage on bardic claims only.

How things stand that morning

No Tomara holds land. Whether any member of the house lives on as a village headman, a pensioner or a fugitive is not recorded.

Threats

• Obscurity

Places of note

• Anangpur dam: Masonry dam credited to the Tomaras; the attribution is marked 'citation needed' on Wikipedia
• Suraj Kund: Stepped reservoir in the Aravalli rock credited to the Tomaras (board)

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry tomara-tanka says 'the Tomara chief was left in place as a client until 1193 and then removed for treason'; this matches Nizami as summarised. The campaign board shades the Delhi hinterland as 'lordship over villages'; we draw no map part because nothing shows a Tomara holding in 1200.
• Bardic tradition (Prithviraj Raso, via the Wikipedia Tomara article) says the last Tomara king gave Delhi to Prithviraja; modern scholarship rejects this.

Evidence: Wikipedia's Tomara article (which is thin on dates) and one line in the Aibak article.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: No map part: nothing shows ground held.

Primary sources for Ghurids

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• The History of the World Conqueror, Ata-Malik Juvayni (1252 to 1260). Written for the Mongols but with a long retrospective on the powers they destroyed. Read online
• The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
• The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
• The Crown of Glorious Deeds, Hasan Nizami (Sadr al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan Nizami of Nishapur) (begun about 1205 at Delhi, carried on to about 1217). The earliest history written in Muslim India and the only contemporary account of Qutb al-Din Aibak's campaigns. Read online
• The Nasirean Generations (a general history of the Muslim dynasties), Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (completed 1260 at Delhi). The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Read online
• The Tree of Genealogies, and the Manners of War and Bravery, Fakhr-i Mudabbir (Fakhr al-Din Muhammad ibn Mansur Mubarakshah) (the Shajara about 1206, dedicated to Qutb al-Din Aibak; the Adab al-harb in the 1220s for Iltutmish). The prose introduction to the Shajara, written within six years of 1200, praises Aibak and tells of his rise under Mu'izz al-Din of Ghur, his consecration at Lahore in 1206 and the Ghurid campaigns in Hindustan, with some notice of the Turkish peoples.

3 more in the sources library for Persia and the Eastern Islamic World.