_Rajput, Tomara, Tuar, Turtwar_.--This clan is an ancient one, supposed
by Colonel Tod to be derived from the Yadavas or lunar race. The
name is said to come from _tomar_ a club. [577] The Tomara clan was
considered to be a very ancient one, and the great king Vikramaditya,
whose reign was the Hindu Golden Age, was held to have been sprung
from it. These traditions are, however, now discredited, as well as
that of Delhi having been built by a Tomara king, Anang Pal I., in
A.D. 733. Mr. V.A. Smith states that Delhi was founded in 993-994,
and Anangapala, a Tomara king, built the Red Fort about 1050. In
1052 he removed the celebrated iron pillar, on which the eulogy of
Chandragupta Vikramaditya is incised, from its original position,
probably at Mathura, and set it up in Delhi as an adjunct to a group
of temples from which the Muhammadans afterwards constructed the
great mosque. [578] This act apparently led to the tradition that
Vikramaditya had been a Tomara, and also to a much longer historical
antiquity being ascribed to the clan than it really possessed. The
Tomara rule at Delhi only lasted about 150 years, and in the middle
of the twelfth century the town was taken by Bisal Deo, the Chauhan
chieftain of Ajmer, whose successor, Prithwi Raj, reigned at Delhi, but
was defeated and killed by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1192. Subsequently,
perhaps in the reign of Ala-ud-Din Khilji, a Tomara dynasty established
itself at Gwalior, and one of their kings, Dungara Singh (1425-1454),
had executed the celebrated rock-sculptures of Gwalior. [579] In 1518
Gwalior was taken by the Muhammadans, and the last Tomara king reduced
to the status of an ordinary jagirdar. The Tomara clan is numerous in
the Punjab country near Delhi, where it still possesses high rank,
but in the United Provinces it is not so much esteemed. [580] No
ruling chief now belongs to this clan. In the Central Provinces the
Tomaras or Tunwars belong principally to the Hoshangabad District The
zamindars of Bilaspur, who were originally of the Tawar subcaste of
the Kawar tribe, now also claim to be Tomara Rajputs on the strength
of the similarity of the name.