Tripura is a hilly state in northeast India, bordered on 3 sides by Bangladesh, and home to a diverse mix of tribal cultures and religious groups. In the capital Agartala, the imposing Ujjayanta Palace is set among Mughal gardens, and Gedu Mia’s Mosque has white marble domes and towers. South of the city, Neermahal summer palace sits in the middle of Lake Rudrasagar and blends Hindu and Islamic architectural styles.
Area: 10,492 km²
Capital: Agartala
Chief minister: Manik Saha
Official animal: Phayre’s leaf monkey
Languages: Bengali, Kokborok, English Language
History
Although there is no evidence of lower or middle Paleolithic settlements in Tripura, Upper Paleolithic tools made of fossil wood have been found in the Haora and Khowai valleys.
The Indian epic, the Mahabharata; ancient religious texts, the Puranas; and the Edicts of Ashoka – stone pillar inscriptions of the emperor Ashoka dating from the third century BCE – all mention Tripura. An ancient name of Tripura (as mentioned in the Mahabharata) is Kirat Desh (English: “The land of Kirat”), probably referring to the Kirata Kingdoms or the more generic term Kirata.However, it is unclear whether the extent of modern Tripura is coterminous with Kirat Desh. The region was under the rule of the Twipra Kingdom for centuries, but when this dynasty began is not documented. The Rajmala, a chronicle of Tripuri kings which was first written in the 15th century, provides a list of 179 kings, from antiquity up to Krishna Kishore Manikya (1830–1850), but it is not a reliable source.
The boundaries of the kingdom changed over the centuries. At various times, the borders reached south to the jungles of the Sundarbans on the Bay of Bengal; east to Burma; and north to the boundary of the Kamarupa kingdom in Assam. There were several Muslim invasions of the region from the 13th century onward, which culminated in Mughal dominance of the plains of the kingdom in 1733, although their rule never extended to the hill regions. The Mughals had influence over the appointment of the Tripuri kings.
Tripura became a princely state during British rule in India. The kings had an estate in British India, known as Tippera district or Chakla Roshanbad (now the Comilla district of Bangladesh), in addition to the independent area known as Hill Tippera, roughly corresponding to the present day Tripura state. Udaipur, in the south of Tripura, was the capital of the kingdom, until the king Krishna Manikya moved the capital to Old Agartala in the 18th century. It was moved to the new city of Agartala in the 19th century. Bir Chandra Manikya (1862–1896) modelled his administration on the pattern of British India, and enacted reforms including the formation of Agartala Municipal Corporation.