The kingdom
The Tripuri kings ruled the hills between Bengal and the Chittagong plain, and the kingdom at its height extended into the Bengal delta. The dynasty took the title Manikya from the fifteenth century and claimed descent from the lunar line, a Sanskritic genealogy grafted onto a Tibeto-Burman royal house — the same process visible in Assam.
The Rājamālā, the kingdom's chronicle, was composed in Bengali verse from the fifteenth century onward and continued for centuries. That the court history of a Tripuri kingdom was written in Bengali rather than in Kokborok or Sanskrit says a good deal about the cultural orientation of the court, and the tension between the Bengali-speaking plains and the Tripuri hills has remained a live issue in the state's politics.
The Tripura Sundari temple at Udaipur, one of the śakti pīṭhas, was built by a Manikya king in 1501.
Tagore
The Manikya rulers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were substantial patrons of Bengali letters. Bir Chandra Manikya recognised Rabindranath Tagore's talent when the poet was in his twenties and unknown, and the relationship between the Tripura court and Tagore lasted through four reigns; he visited seven times, and several of his works are connected with the state.
Tripura acceded to India in 1949. The Ujjayanta Palace at Agartala, built in 1901, now houses the state museum.
Further reading
- Dimock, Edward C. The Place of the Hidden Moon. University of Chicago Press, 1966
- Nugteren, Albertina. Belief, Bounty, and Beauty: Rituals Around Sacred Trees in India. Brill, 2005
- Basham, A. L. The Wonder That Was India. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1954
- Keay, John. India: A History. HarperCollins, 2000
- Kulke, Hermann. A History of India. Routledge, 2004
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.