Independence at Gwalior
The Tomaras took Gwalior in 1394, as the Delhi Sultanate disintegrated after Timur's invasion, and held the fort against Delhi, Malwa and Jaunpur for more than a century. Gwalior in this period is a good example of what the fifteenth century actually looked like in northern India: a patchwork of regional powers, several of them Hindu, in the space left by the Sultanate's collapse.
Mān Singh
Mān Singh Tomar, who ruled from 1486 to 1516, built the Man Mandir on the eastern face of the Gwalior fort — a palace faced in blue, yellow and green tilework, with carved stone screens and underground chambers, and among the finest secular buildings surviving from pre-Mughal India. Babur, who saw it, called Gwalior the pearl among the fortresses of Hind.
His court was decisive for Indian music. The dhrupad form was developed there under his patronage, and he is credited with the compilation of the Mān Kutūhal, a work on music that was later translated into Persian. The tradition passed from Gwalior into the Mughal court through Tansen, who came from the same milieu.
The Jain rock-cut colossi on the approaches to the fort — dozens of figures, some over fifteen metres, cut into the cliff — were carved in this period. Many were defaced after Babur's occupation and later partly restored.
Ibrahim Lodi took Gwalior in 1518, two years after Mān Singh's death, and the Tomara kingdom ended.
Further reading
- Asher, Catherine B. India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2006
- Blurton, T. Richard. Hindu Art. Harvard University Press, 1993
- Davis, Richard H. Lives of Indian Images. Princeton University Press, 1997
- Elgood, Heather. Hinduism and the Religious Arts. Cassell, 1999
- Gordon, Stewart. The Marathas 1600-1818. Cambridge University Press, 1993
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.