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.
History
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, an 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.[citation needed]
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]
^ a bNag, Sajal (2007), Making of the Indian Union: Merger of princely states and excluded areas, Akansha Pub. House, p. 321, ISBN 978-81-8370-110-5
^"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)
^"Survey and settlement of the Roshanbad estate in the districts of Tippera and Noakhali, 1892-99".
^Das, J. K. (2001), Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples, APH Publishing, pp. 224–225, ISBN 978-81-7648-243-1
References
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
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tripura State.
Manipuri Queens in the Royal House of Tripura – A Historical Study