Twipra Kingdom
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Tripura | |||||||
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c.1400–1949 | |||||||
![]() Coat of arms
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Status | historical kingdom | ||||||
Capital | Udaipur Agartala | ||||||
Religion | Hinduism | ||||||
Government | hereditary monarchy | ||||||
History | |||||||
• Established by Maha Manikya | c.1400 | ||||||
c.1460 | |||||||
1949 | |||||||
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Kingdom of Tripura | |||
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Part of History of Tripura | |||
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Tripura monarchy data | |||
Manikya dynasty (Royal family) | |||
Agartala (Capital of the kingdom) | |||
Ujjayanta Palace (Royal residence) | |||
Neermahal (Royal residence) | |||
Rajmala (Royal chronicle) | |||
Tripura Buranji (Chronicle) | |||
Chaturdasa Devata (Family deities) | |||
Twipra Kingdom (Sanskrit: Tripura, Anglicized: Tippera) was one of the largest historical kingdoms of the Tripuri people in the North-east India.
Geography[]
The present political areas which were part of the Tipra Kingdom are:
- Barak valley (Cachar Plains) of present day Assam state of India [1]
- Tripura state of India
The Twipra Kingdom in all its various ages comprised the areas with the borders:
- Khasi Hills in the North
- Manipur Hills in the North-East
- Arakan Hills of Burma in the East
- The Bay of Bengal to the South
- The Brahmaputra river to the West
Legend[]
A list of legendary Tripuri kings is given in the Rajmala chronicle, a 15th-century chronicle in Bengali verse written by the court pandits of Dharma Manikya I (r. 1431). The chronicle traces the king's ancestry to the mythological Lunar Dynasty. In the 8th century, the Kingdom shifted its capital eastwards along the Surma river in Sylhet near present Kailasahar town of North Tripura.[citation needed]
The religion of the Tipra had 14 deities known as Chaturdasa Devata and is still preserved in the Chaturdasha Temple in Agartala, which is maintained by the Tipra priests known as 's, who oversee the festivals of the Kharchi and Ker according to traditions.
History[]
Islamic-invasions era[]
The earliest historical records concerning the Twipra kingdom concern the 15th century, when it first came under pressure from the Islamic conquests in India. This is also the time of origin of the Manikya Dynasty, started when Chhengthung Fa adopted the title Manikya, becoming Maha Manikya, with the cognomen being held by all Kings of Tripura until the death of Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya in 1947.[2] Under Ratna Manikya I, the capital shifted to Rangamati on the banks of the river Gumti, now in South Tripura.
Tripura was one of the states that pushed back successive waves of invasions from Turks, Ethiopian Muslims, Afghans, and Mughals. On many occasions, Tripuris (Tiprasa) also pushed back Burmese and Arakanese invasions from the East. At its height it comprised what is now Tripura, Sylhet division of Bangladesh, Cachar region of Assam state and the Chittagong Hill Tracts of what is now Bangladesh, and even managed to remain free and independent before the British takeover.
The plains of Tripura, however, fell to the attacks from Mughals. The plains territories comprise today's South-East Dhaka and Comilla areas. While the plains areas were thus Islamized, the Hills of Tripura served as a continuous bulwark against penetration to the East. The Tripura Hill Kings were major sponsors of Hindu traditions and customs. In the modern age, they are remembered as one of the longest and most stable dynasties from the Indian East.
Dhanya Manikya (reigned 1463 to 1515) expanded Twipra's territorial domain well into Eastern Bengal. Rangamati was renamed Udaipur after Udai Manikya. The kingdom flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries with kings such as Govinda Manikya putting up a strong defence against the pressure of the Muslim kingdoms to the west. However, the plains areas fell away from Tripura state due to the actions of a renegade Tripuri prince who was backed by Mughal governors of Eastern Bengal plains. After this, plains Twipra became a separate Mughal client kingdom, with the Mughal rulers exerting influence on the appointment of its kings. However, the Mughals could never penetrate the Hills territories to the East.
British India[]
In British India, the kings retained an estate in British India, known as Tippera district or Chakla Roshnabad (now the greater Comilla region of Bangladesh), in addition to the independent area known as Hill Tippera, the present-day state of Tripura. Bir Chandra Manikya (1862–1896) modelled his administration on the pattern of British India, and enacted reforms including the formation of Agartala Municipal Corporation. The last king was Kirit Bikram Kishore, son of Bir Bikram Kishore Debbarma, who ruled for two years, 1947–1949. In 1949, Tripura became part of the Republic of India. The Tripuri "heir apparent" is Kirat Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma (born 1978), the son of the last king, who is sometimes given the courtesy title of "Maharaja".
See also[]
Notes[]
- ^ In 1562, Chilarai attacked the kingdom and took possession of the Barak valley in which the state of Khaspur was established as a dewani of the Koch kingdom). (Bhattacharjee 1994:71) In the 18th-century, a Kachari king annexed the Hailakandi valley. (Bhattacharjee 1994:72)
- ^ (Boland-Crewe & Lea 2005, p. 238)
References[]
- Bhattacharjee, J B (1994), "Pre-colonial Political Structure of Barak Valley", in Sangma, Milton S (ed.), Essays on North-east India: Presented in Memory of Professor V. Venkata Rao, New Delhi: Indus Publishing Company, pp. 61–85
- Boland-Crewe, Tara; Lea, David (2005) [2002]. The Territories and States of India. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-35625-5.
- Tripura Buranji 17th Century Ahom Chronicle.
- Progressive Tripura, 1930
- Rajmala, royal chronicle of Tripura Kings.
- Hill Tippera – History The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909, v. 13, p. 118.
Further reading[]
- Online Books and material
- Tripura Rajmala (1850) by Rev. James Long
External links[]
- Information on the kingdom of Tripura at the University of Queensland
- About Tippera District Present day Comilla District of Bangladesh
- History of Tripura
- Kings of Tripura
- Empires and kingdoms of India
- Former monarchies of Asia
- History of Bengal
- Kingdoms of Northeast India