Tripura State, also known asHill Tipperah,[1] was aprincely state in India during the period of theBritish Raj and for some two years after the departure of the British. Its rulers belonged to theManikya dynasty and until August 1947 the state was in asubsidiary alliance, from which it was released by theIndian Independence Act 1947. The stateacceded to the newly independentIndian Union on 13 August 1947, and subsequentlymerged into the Indian Union in October 1949.[2]
The princely state was located in the present-day Indian state ofTripura. 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 ajewel ('Mani' inSanskrit) that had been obtained from a frog. The first king who ruled the state under the royal title of Manikya was MaharajaMaha Manikya, who ascended the throne in 1400. The kingdom is mentioned inMing Shilu asDi-wu-la. It is further stated that it was occupied byDa-Gu-la, an unidentified state in what isNorthern Myanmar orAssam.[3]TheRajmala, achronicle of theKings of Tripura, was written inBengali verse in the 15th century underDharma Manikya I.[4] The kingdom of Tripura reached its maximum expansion in the 16th century.[5]
In 1764, when theBritish East India Company took control of Bengal, the parts of Bengal that had been under theMughal Empire were taken over by the British administration. In 1809, Tripura became aBritish 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 byKuki 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 asanad that regulated permanently the succession of the royal family. Thenceforward the succession would have to be recognised by theViceroy of India representing the British Crown.
In 1905, Tripura became part of the new province ofEastern 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 ofNoakhali,Sylhet andTipperah districts; the latter is now mostly included in theComilla District ofBangladesh.[7]
The head of the royal family of Tripura held the title of 'Maharaja' from 1919 onwards. Since 1897 the rulers were entitled to a 13gun 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
