From the Tomar rulers of early medieval Delhi to Rana Rajpal Singh’s establishment of Rithala in 1384, the history of the Som Tomars is intertwined with the changing fortunes of Delhi itself.
Delhi is usually remembered through the great imperial dynasties that made it their capital—the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals and, eventually, the British. Yet beneath these better-known chapters survives an older history, preserved through inscriptions, historical chronicles, village traditions and the genealogies of families whose association with the region predates many of Delhi’s celebrated monuments.
Among these are the Som Tomars of Rithala, a Chandravanshi Rajput lineage whose family tradition traces its ancestry to Raja Anangpal Tomar I, associated with the establishment or re-establishment of Tomar power at Delhi in the eighth century.
Their story stretches from the early Tomar rulers of Delhi to Rana Rajpal Singh, who established Rithala in 1384 AD, and onward through generations of landed chiefs and zamindars who remained associated with the village into modern times.
Raja Anangpal Tomar and the Early History of Delhi
The Tomaras—or Tomars—occupy an important place in the early medieval history of the Delhi region.
A longstanding historical and bardic tradition places Raja Anangpal Tomar I at Delhi in 736 CE. Archaeological Survey of India material discussing the historical chronology of Delhi specifically notes the bardic tradition according to which Anangpal Tuar founded Delhi in Vikram Samvat 792, corresponding to 736 CE.
Older historical scholarship likewise records the tradition that the first Tomar ruler Anangpal came to power in Delhi in AD 736 and made Delhi his capital.
The precise chronology of the earliest Tomar rulers remains a subject of historical debate. Modern historians therefore treat some of the detailed early genealogies cautiously. What is much better established is that the Tomaras emerged as an important political power in the Delhi-Haryana region, eventually exercising sovereignty around Delhi before the rise of the Chahamanas or Chauhans.
The Tomar connection with Delhi consequently represents one of the oldest identifiable Rajput political traditions associated with the city.
The Som Branch
According to the preserved genealogy of the Rithala family, Raja Anangpal I had several sons, from whom different branches of the wider Tomar house descended.
Family tradition identifies his seventh son as Raja Sompal.
The descendants of Raja Sompal consequently came to be identified as the Som or Sumal branch of the Tomar Chandravanshi Rajputs.
This tradition assumes particular significance because a modern planning study commissioned in connection with Delhi’s development independently describes the founder of Rithala, Rana Rajpal Singh, as belonging to the “Sumal Gotra of Tomar Chandervanshi Rajputs.”
Thus, while the precise father-to-son genealogy connecting Sompal of the early medieval period to the fourteenth-century founder of Rithala requires further documentary corroboration, the identification of the Rithala founding family as Sumal/Som Tomars survives in both community genealogy and modern documentary records.
Rana Rajpal Singh and the Foundation of Rithala — 1384
A major documented milestone in the family’s history came in 1384 AD.
At the time, Delhi was under Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who ruled from 1351 to 1388.
It was during this period that Rana Rajpal Singh, an ancestor of the present Rithala family, established himself at Rithala.
Significantly, this is not based solely upon contemporary family tradition.
A study hosted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) records:
Rithala was founded in 1384 AD and was established by Rana Rajpal Singh of the Sumal Gotra of Tomar Chandravanshi Rajputs.
The same study records that the settlement was historically known as “Lathi Wala.”
According to the family’s traditional account, Raja Rajpal Singh acquired the Jagir of Rithala in 1384 from Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq.
The DDA study provides a fascinating parallel version of the tradition. It records that an ancestor who became a commander sought permission from the ruler to govern territory, following which he was granted control over as much land as he could encircle on horseback within a prescribed period.
Whatever embellishments may have entered the story through centuries of oral transmission, the central historical elements remain strikingly consistent: Rana Rajpal Singh, the Tomar Chandravanshi lineage, Rithala and the year 1384.
Rithala: From Rajput Estate to Delhi Village
For generations thereafter, Rithala developed as a predominantly agrarian settlement under the influence of its traditional landed families.
Its location in north-west Delhi placed it within a landscape containing numerous historic villages that long predated the enormous urban expansion of twentieth-century Delhi.
Local memory preserves Rithala as more than simply an agricultural village. It formed part of a network of territories associated with Rajput chiefs and landed houses around Delhi.
The DDA study even describes Rithala as having once been “a princely state itself,” while also recording local traditions concerning a larger territory associated with a group of fourteen ruling brothers.
These traditions deserve deeper investigation through revenue records, settlement reports and surviving family papers, but they demonstrate the remarkably persistent historical consciousness of the community.
Thakur Girja Singh and the Mud Fort
Another important chapter in the family chronicle is associated with Thakur Girja Singh in 1785.
According to the hereditary records and oral history maintained by the family, Thakur Girja Singh captured a mud fort in 1785, consolidating the family’s position in the locality.
This episode belongs to a turbulent period in Delhi’s history.
By the late eighteenth century, Mughal imperial authority had weakened dramatically. Delhi and its surrounding countryside became contested between Mughal nobles, regional chiefs, Rohillas, Marathas, Jats and other military powers.
Within this unsettled political environment, control of fortified villages, garhis and landed estates could determine the survival and influence of local ruling families.
The family’s account of Thakur Girja Singh therefore fits within the broader political character of late eighteenth-century north India. However, independent documentary evidence specifically confirming the 1785 capture of the Rithala mud fort has not yet been located, and the episode is best identified at present as an important part of the family’s recorded tradition.
Further investigation of eighteenth-century revenue papers, Persian records, Delhi district settlement reports and family archives may reveal additional evidence concerning this episode.
The Zamindari of Rithala
Following the consolidation of their position, successive generations of the family continued as zamindars of Rithala.
Land was not merely an economic asset in the traditional zamindari system. The position carried social obligations and authority within village society. Landholding families frequently played roles in agricultural administration, dispute resolution, religious patronage and community affairs.
The Som Tomar association with Rithala therefore evolved from a medieval martial and landed tradition into a hereditary connection with the village lasting for centuries.
Even the enormous transformation of Delhi during the twentieth century did not immediately erase that connection.
After Indian Independence in 1947, the old political and revenue structures of princely India and the zamindari system were progressively dismantled or transformed. Rithala itself would eventually be absorbed into metropolitan Delhi.
From Fields to the Metropolis
Perhaps nothing illustrates the transformation of Delhi more vividly than modern Rithala.
For centuries it existed as a historic village surrounded by agricultural land. During the twentieth century, particularly after Independence, Delhi expanded rapidly around it.
The DDA study records that the village’s agricultural land was acquired by the Delhi Development Authority in the early 1980s.
The countryside that generations of the Rithala families had known gradually became part of one of the world’s largest metropolitan regions.
Today, Rithala is associated with Rohini and the urban landscape of north-west Delhi. Roads, residential colonies, commercial establishments and the Delhi Metro have transformed its surroundings almost beyond recognition.
Yet the old village survives within the metropolis.
Rana Rajpal Singh Smriti Sthal
The memory of Rithala’s founder has also been formally preserved.
A community organisation, the Rithalias Trust, established the Rana Raj Pal Singh Smriti Sthal in memory of the man traditionally regarded as the founder of Rithala.
The memorial includes a tower and a small temple and serves as a tangible reminder of a history stretching back more than six centuries.
In a rapidly changing city where older village histories can easily disappear beneath modern development, such memorials play an important role in preserving local identity.
A Lineage Interwoven with Delhi
The story of the Som Tomars of Rithala can consequently be viewed through three distinct historical layers.
The first is the Tomar legacy of early medieval Delhi, associated in tradition with Raja Anangpal I and the emergence of Tomar political power in the Delhi region.
The second is the Som/Sumal genealogical tradition, which traces the branch to Raja Sompal and eventually to Rana Rajpal Singh.
The third—and most firmly documented chapter—is the foundation of Rithala by Rana Rajpal Singh in 1384, a tradition specifically recorded in a Delhi Development Authority planning study.
From there emerges more than six centuries of continuous family association with one corner of Delhi.
Empires changed around them.
The Tughlaqs disappeared. The Sayyids and Lodis followed. The Mughals made Delhi an imperial capital. The eighteenth century brought political upheaval, followed by British rule and finally the birth of independent India.
Through these transformations, Rithala endured.
Preserving the Som Tomar Heritage
The history of families such as the Som Tomars demonstrates why India’s royal and landed heritage cannot be understood solely through famous palaces and major princely states.
Across India are hundreds of old thikanas, jagirs, zamindaris, garhis and hereditary estates whose families played an important role in the political and social history of their regions.
Rithala represents one such legacy.
Its story connects the legendary and genealogical memory of the Tomars of Delhi, the historically recorded foundation of the village by Rana Rajpal Singh in 1384, the traditions surrounding Thakur Girja Singh in 1785, and the family’s later position as zamindars.
More importantly, it provides a remarkable example of how an ancient lineage can remain associated with the same geographical landscape even as that landscape changes from kingdom to Sultanate, from Mughal territory to colonial India, and finally from an agricultural village into modern Delhi.
For the descendants of the house, the identity “Som” therefore represents more than a gotra or family designation.
It represents a living link to their ancestry—a lineage whose memory reaches back to the Tomars of early Delhi and whose documented association with Rithala has endured for more than 640 years.
Historical Note
The early genealogy connecting the Som family directly to Raja Anangpal I and identifying Raja Sompal as his seventh son is preserved principally through family and genealogical tradition. The 1785 episode concerning Thakur Girja Singh and the mud fort likewise requires further archival corroboration.
By contrast, the 1384 foundation of Rithala by Rana Rajpal Singh of the Sumal Gotra of Tomar Chandravanshi Rajputs is specifically recorded in a Delhi Development Authority-hosted study, providing an unusually valuable documentary confirmation of this part of the family’s history.
