Tripura State, also known as Hill Tipperah,[1] was a
princely state in India during the period of the
British Raj and for some two years after the departure of the British. Its rulers belonged to the
Manikya dynasty and until August 1947 the state was in a
subsidiary alliance, from which it was released by the
Indian Independence Act 1947. The state
acceded to the newly independent
Indian Union on 13 August 1947, and subsequently
merged into the Indian Union in October 1949.[2]
The princely state was located in the present-day Indian state of
Tripura. The state included one town,
Agartala, as well as a total of 1,463 villages. It had an area of 10,660 km2 and a population of 513,000 inhabitants in 1941.
The predecessor state of Tripura was founded about 100 AD. According to legend the Manikya dynasty derived its name from a
jewel ('Mani' in
Sanskrit) that had been obtained from a frog. The first king who ruled the state under the royal title of Manikya was Maharaja
Maha Manikya, who ascended the throne in 1400.
The kingdom is mentioned in
Ming Shilu as Di-wu-la. It is further stated that it was occupied by Da-Gu-la, a unidentified state in what is
Northern Myanmar or
Assam.[3]
The Rajmala, a
chronicle of the
Kings of Tripura, was written in
Bengali verse in the 15th century under
Dharma Manikya I.[4] The kingdom of Tripura reached its maximum expansion in the 16th century.[5]
In 1764, when the
British East India Company took control of Bengal, the parts of Bengal that had been under the
Mughal Empire were taken over by the British administration. In 1809, Tripura became a
British protectorate, and in 1838 the Rajas of Tripura were recognised by the British as sovereigns.
Between 1826 and 1862 the eastern part was subject to the ravages caused by
Kuki invaders that plundered and destroyed villages and massacred their inhabitants.
There were troubles in every succession among the Tripura royal family members when the aspiring princes often resorted to use the services of the Kukis to cause disturbances. Thus in 1904, the British enacted a
sanad that regulated permanently the succession of the royal family. Thenceforward the succession would have to be recognised by the
Viceroy of India representing the British Crown.
In 1905, Tripura became part of the new province of
Eastern Bengal and Assam and was designated as 'Hill Tippera'.[6] In addition to the Hill Tippera area, which corresponds to Tripura State, the kings retained a fertile estate known as Chakla Roshanbad with an area of 1476 km2, located in the flatland of
Noakhali,
Sylhet and
Tipperah districts; the latter is now mostly included in the
Comilla District of
Bangladesh.[7]
Kirit Pradyot Deb Barman (b. 1978) was the son of the last King - and is the current titular monarch.
Rulers
The head of the royal family of Tripura held the title of '
Maharaja' from 1919 onwards. Since 1897 the rulers were entitled to a 13
gun salute by the British authorities.[citation needed]
^"The MSL records that the territory of this polity was in the early 15th century occupied by Da Gu-la (Tai-zong 269.3a-b), which suggests an area near Assam, There seems little doubt that it refers to Tripura, which lies south of the Brahmaputra and north of Bengal"(
Wade 1994:253)
Wade, Geoffrey (1994), The Ming Shi-lu (Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty) as a Source for Southeast Asian History — 14th to 17th Centuries, Hong Kong{{
citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
External links
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